IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


1.0 


I.I 


■-121 

■  JO     "^ 
i.    ^ 


1^ 
IIIW 
IIIIM 

18 


1.25     1.4 

B           ==: 

1.6 

* 6"     — 

► 

V] 


«^ 


'ew 


/ 


7 


^ 


Photographic 

Sciences 

Corporation 


23  WEST  MAIN  S::^EET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

(716)  872-4503 


o 


s:<7 


Z. 


CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


Tachnical  and  Bibliographic  Notas/Notoa  tachniquas  at  bibliographiquaa 


Th«< 
toth 


Tha  instituta  has  attamptad  to  obtain  tha  bast 
original  copy  availabia  for  filming.  Faaturas  of  this 
copy  which  may  ba  bibliographically  uniqua. 
which  may  altar  any  of  tha  imagas  in  tha 
raproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  changa 
tha  usual  mathod  of  filming,  ara  chackad  balow. 


□    Coiourad  covars/ 
Couvartura  da  coulaur 


pn    Covars  damagad/ 


D 


Couvartura  andommag^a 


Covars  rastorad  and/or  laminatad/ 
Couvartura  rastaurte  at/ou  palliculia 


□    Covar  titia  missing/ 
La  titra  da  couvartura  manqua 

I — I    Coiourad  maps/ 


0 

D 
D 

n 


n 


n 


Cartas  giographiquas  an  coulaur 

Coiourad  ink  (i.a.  othar  than  blua  or  black)/ 
Encra  da  coulaur  (i.a.  autra  qua  blaua  ou  noira) 

Coiourad  platas  and/or  illustrations/ 
Planchaa  at/ou  illustrations  9n  coulaur 


Bound  with  othar  matarial/ 
RaliA  avac  d'autraa  documants 

Tight  binding  may  c«usa  shadows  or  distortion 
along  intarior  margin/ 

La  re  liura  ftrim  paut  causar  da  I'ombra  ou  da  la 
distortion  la  long  do  la  marge  intirieura 

Blank  laivas  addad  during  restoration  may 
appear  within  tha  text.  Whenevar  possible,  these 
have  baan  omittad  from  filming/ 
II  sa  paut  qua  cartainas  pages  blanches  ajoutAss 
lors  d'una  rastauration  apparaissant  dans  la  taxta. 
mais,  lorsqua  cala  Atait  possibia,  cas  pagas  n'ont 
pas  itt  filmias. 


Additional  comments:/ 
Commentairas  suppl^mentairas; 


L'Institut  a  microfilm*  la  maillaur  axemplaire 
qu'il  lui  a  iti  possibia  da  sa  procurar.  Las  details 
da  cat  axemplaire  qui  sont  peut-4tre  uniquas  du 
point  da  vue  bibliographiqua,  qui  pauvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduita.  ou  qui  pauvant  axiger  una 
modification  dans  la  mithoda  normala  da  filmaga 
sont  indiquAs  ci-dassous. 

□    Coiourad  pages/ 
Pagaa  da  coulaur 

□    Pagaa  damaged/ 
Pagaa  andommagAas 

r~~|    Pages  restored  and/or  laminatad/ 


D 


Pagas  rastaur^as  at/ou  palliculias 

Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxei 
Pagas  dicolorias,  tachaties  ou  piquiaa 

Pagas  datached/ 
Pagas  ditachias 

Showthrough/ 
Transparence 

Quality  of  prir 

QualitA  inigala  da  i'impression 

Includas  supplementary  matarii 
Comprand  du  material  suppl^mantaira 

Only  edition  availabia/ 
Saula  Mition  disponibia 


Thai 
posa 
ofth 
fiimii 


Origl 

bagii 

thali 

sion, 

othai 

first 

sion, 

or  nil 


r~T  Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 

F~]  Pagas  datached/ 

FTI  Showthrough/ 

|~n  Quality  of  print  varies/ 

r~n  Includas  supplementary  matarial/ 

r~l  Only  edition  available/ 


Thai 
shall 
TINl 
whic 

IMapi 
difffei 
entin 
begii 
right 
requ 
mett 


Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Lea  pages  totalament  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  fauillet  d'errata.  une  pelure, 
etc..  cnt  ete  filmees  A  nouveau  da  facon  d 
obtanir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  film*  au  taux  da  reduction  indiquA  ci-dassous. 


10X 

14X 

18X 

22X 

26X 

30X 

/ 

12X 


16X 


20X 


24X 


28X 


32X 


Th«  copy  filmad  h«r«  has  b«6n  r«produc«d  thanks 
to  the  gansrosity  of: 

TiM  Nova  Scotia 
Lagiilativa  Library 


L'axampiaira  filmA  f ut  raprodult  griea  A  la 
gAn^rosit*  da: 

Tha  Nova  Scotia 

Lagiilativa  Library 


Tha  imagas  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  bast  quality 
posslbia  considaring  tha  condition  and  laglblllty 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  kaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  spacif ications. 


Laa  Imagaa  suivantas  ont  At*  raproduitas  avac  la 
plus  grand  soin,  compta  tanu  da  la  condition  at 
da  la  nattat*  da  Taxampiaira  filmi,  at  an 
conformity  avac  las  conditions  du  contrat  da 
filmaga. 


Original  copias  in  printad  papar  covers  ara  filmad 
beginning  with  tha  front  covar  and  anding  on 
tha  last  paga  with  a  printad  or  illustratad  impras- 
sion,  or  tha  back  covar  whan  appropriate.  All 
othar  original  copias  ara  filmad  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printad  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, and  ending  on  the  last  paga  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


Les  exemplaires  origlnaux  dont  la  couvarture  en 
papier  est  imprimAe  sont  filmis  en  commenpant 
par  la  premier  plat  at  an  tarminant  salt  par  la 
darnlAre  paga  qui  comporte  une  emprelnte 
d'Impresslon  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  la  second 
plat,  salon  le  cas.  Toua  las  autras  exemplaires 
origlnaux  sont  filmAs  an  commandant  par  la 
pramidre  page  qui  comporte  une  emprelnte 
d'Impresslon  ou  d'illustration  at  an  terminant  par 
la  darnlAre  paga  qui  comporte  une  telle 
emprelnte. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  — »•  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  V  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 


Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparattra  sur  la 
darnlAre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  aaion  le 
cas:  la  symbols  -^  signifie  "A  SUIVRE",  le 
symbols  ▼  signifie  "FIN". 


Maps,  plates,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


Lea  cartas,  planchaa,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  Atre 
fllmAs  A  des  taux  da  rMuctlon  dIffArents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  Atre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clichA,  11  est  fllmA  A  partir 
da  I'angia  supArieur  gauche,  de  gauche  A  drolta, 
at  de  haut  an  bas,  an  prenant  la  nombra 
d'images  nAcessaira.  Les  diagrammas  suivants 
lllustrent  la  mAthoda. 


1  2  3 


32X 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

'J^r 


r 


?^^ 


I       / 


Con 


.% 


NOTES 


ON 


NORTH     AMERICA 

AGRICULTURAL,    ECONOMICAL, 
AND    SOCIAL 


BY 


JAMES    F.    W.    JOHNSTON 

M.A.,  F.B.S.S.L,  &  E.,  F.O.8.,  C.S.,  4c.  ' 

RRARKR    IN  CIIRMISTRV  AND   MINERAI.OOV   IN  THE   UNIVKRIITV   Or   DURHAM 


TWO    VOLUMES 

VOL.    I. 


BOSTON: 
CHARLES    C.    LITTLE    AND    JAMES    BROWN 

AND 

WILLIAM    BLACKWOOD    AND    SONS 

EDINBURGH    AND    LONDON 
MDCCCLl 


__      .; 


I 


Vf.tf    ."i.-  r.-i  Mm' 


1-1 J 

7^ 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1850,  by 

James  F.  W.  Johnston, 

In  the  Clerk's  cilice  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


\\Xh 


TO 


HIS    EXCELLENCY 


SIR   EDMUND    HEAD,    BART, 

I.IEUTENANT-GOVERNOa   OP  THE  PROVINCE   OF   NEW  BRUNSWICK, 

&e.  ice. 


Dear  Sir  Edmund, 

I  dedicate  these  volumes  to  you, 
partly  because  they  contain,  among  other  matters,  the  obser- 
vations I  made  during  a  lengthened  Tour  through  the  pro- 
vince of  which  you  are  the  Governor,  and  in  the  prosperity 
of  which  you  feel  so  lively  an  interest.  But  I  do  so  chiefly 
as  a  mode  of  testifying  the  respect  and  regard  I  entertain 
for  yourself  and  yom-  family,  and  as  aiFording  me  an  oppor- 
tunity of  expressing  my  sense  of  the  many  acts  of  kindness 
I  experienced  during  a  prolonged  stay  at  Fredericton,  under 
your  hospitable  roof. 
Believe  me,  dear  Sir  Edmund,  with  great  respect, 

Your  obedient  Servant, 


JAMES  F.  W.  JOHNSTON. 


PREFACE 


I  HAVE  given  to  the  following  volumes  the  title  of 
"  Notes,"  because  I  am  conscious  of  the  imperfect 
and  hurried  character  of  some  of  the  observations 
they  contain,  and  that  mistakes,  generally  trivial 
I  hope,  and  always  unintentional,  may  be  dis- 
covered in  them  by  natives  of  North  America. 

In  recording  my  remarks  and  impressions,  while 
I  am  sensible  that  I  have  regarded  objects  with  tlie 
eyes  and  feelings  of  a  "  Britisher,"  and  have  gene- 
rally written  as  if  I  were  addressing  British  readers 
only ;  yet  I  have  endeavoured  to  speak  fairly  and 
with  candour,  both  of  the  institutions  and  of  the 
social  condition  of  the  States  and  Provinces  through 
which  it  was  my  fortune  to  travel.  While  I  have 
expressed  my  opinions  freely,  I  have  endeavoured 
to  avoid  either  ridicule  or  causeless  reproach.  And 
although  I  cannot  hope  that  my  remarks  will  be 
always  agreeable  to  my  friends  in  the  United  States, 
yet  I  hope  none  will  accuse  me  of  a  desire  either 
to  violate  confidence,   or  to  return   bitterness  of 


,»-J_ 


i    ; 


Vl 


rUEFACE. 


speech  for  the  respect  and  kindness  wliich  I  CTcry- 
wlierc  experienced. 

In  addition  to  the  matters  usually  commented 
upon  by  those  who  visit  foreign  countries,  the 
reader  will  find  in  these  volumes  a  kind  and  class 
of  observations  which  he  will  not  have  met  with  in 
other  books  of  travels.  And  though  I  may  appear 
to  incur  the  risk  of  injuring  their  popularity  with  the 
general  public  by  introducing  agricultural  remarks, 
yet,  in  the  present  condition  of  our  own  agricultural 
interest,  there  are  few  persons  to  whom  some  infor- 
mation in  regard  to  that  of  America  will  not  be 
acceptable.  These  observations  on  rural  matters 
are  also  so  mixed  up  with  remarks  on  other  subjects 
as  not,  I  hope,  to  fatigue  even  the  ordinary  readers 
of  books  of  travels. 

It  has  long  struck  me  as  a  vital  defect  in  the 
accomplishments  of  most  of  our  travellers  in  foreign 
countries,  that  the  want  of  an  agricultural  eye  has 
prevented  them  from  giving  us  any  of  that  positive 
and  matter-of-fact  information  upon  which  alone  a 
correct  estimate  of  the  real  character,  capabilities, 
and  future  economical  prospects  of  a  country  can 
be  safely  based. 

I  have  been  more  detailed  in  my  remarks  upon 
the  lower  St  Lawrence  and  the  province  of  New 
Brunswick,  because  this  is  almost  untrodden  ground, 
and,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  we  possess,  in  reality,  no 
good  account  of  this  region  by  an  eye-witness  from 


* " 


I'KEFACE. 


Vil 


Great  Britain.  In  the  province  of  New  Brunswick 
I  spent  four  months,  and  travelled  two  thousand 
miles — penetrating  to  the  confines  of  the  settled  land 
in  nearly  every  direction.  I  owe  it  to  the  province, 
therefore,  to  make  its  own  inhabitants,  not  less  than 
those  of  Great  Britain  and  of  tlie  United  States, 
better  acquainted  with  the  real  character  and  capa- 
bilities of  its  surface.  In  this  respect,  I  believe  the 
following  pages  will  form  a  historical  document  to 
which  future  provincial  antiquaries  will  turn  back 
for  a  description  of  the  state  of  their  country  in  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Some  persons  in  the  United  States,  and  perhaps 
not  a  few  at  home,  may  be  inclined  to  controvert  the 
opinions  I  have  expressed  in  regard  to  the  agricul- 
ture and  to  the  productive  capabilities  of  the  wheat 
regions  of  North  America.  I  will  not  maintain  that 
more  knowledge  might  not  somewhat  change  my  views 
on  these  subjects ;  but  as  these  form  in  reality  one 
of  the  points  in  my  book  upon  which  I  have  bestowed 
much  deliberation,  I  have  not  put  them  upon  paper 
without  being  fully  satisfied  that  they  are  substan- 
tially correct.  It  will  not  alter  these  opinions,  that 
some  American  writers  may  dissent  from  them.  My 
own  experience  has  shown  me,  that  the  areas  in 
regard  to  which  individuals  in  the  United  States 
possess  really  correct  and  precise  agricultural  infor- 
mation are  very  local  and  limited;  while  the  majority 
are  insensibly  inclined  to  give  faith  to  exaggerations 


i'il 


!  . 


VIU 


PREFACE. 


upon  this  as  upon  other  topics,  provided  their  ten- 
dency be  tlie  patriotic  one  of  exalting  the  greatness 
of  their  country. 

I  trust,  however,  that  even  where  my  observations 
do  not  wholly  coincide  with  those  of  my  American 
readers,  they  will  at  least  acquit  me  of  picking  out 
deficiencies  even  in  their  agriculture,  for  the  mere 
sake  of  finding  fault,  or  of  exposing  them  in  a  cen- 
sorious spirit.  I  have  spoken  of  the  soil,  and  its 
treatment,  as  I  would  if  I  were  describing  a  district 
of  Great  Britain  ;  and  where  I  have  pointed  out 
defects  in  past  or  present  practice,  it  has  been  for 
the  purpose  of  mentioning  along  with  them  the 
remedies  for  past  mismanagement,  and  the  improve- 
ments of  which  existing  methods  are  susceptible. 

If  I  may  rely  upon  the  testimony  of  my  nume- 
rous Transatlantic  friends,  my  temporary  residence 
in  New  Brunswick,  New  England,  and  the  State  of 
New  York,  has  not  been  without  beneficial  results 
to  the  agriculture  of  those  countries.  I  trust  that, 
while  these  volumes  make  my  own  countrymen  better 
acquainted  with  these  interesting  regions,  they  will 
be  found  to  contain  not  a  few  hints  which  may  still 
further  benefit  and  encourage  the  rural  industry,  both 
of  Great  Britain  and  of  North  America.  I  hope,  also, 
that  the  general  spirit  which  pervades  them  will  tend 
to  draw  still  closer  the  numerous  bonds  by  which 
our  kindred  nations  are  already  so  intimately  allied. 

Durham,  February  1851. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 


A  WEEK  IN   NOVA  SCOTIA. 

Halifax  in  Nova  Scotia. — Roman  Catholic  f6te  and  precedence. 
— Coloured  people  and  Indians. — Maritime  commerce  and 
fisheries. — Agricultural  character  of  tlie  coast  line  of  North 
America. — Letters  of  Agricola. — Population  and  agricultural 
produce. — Road  from  Halifax  to  Windsor. — Soils  and  forests. — 
Pacing  horses. — Gypsum  quarries. — Alluvial  lands  of  the  Bay 
of  Minas. — Their  varieties  and  prices. — Sand  plain  of  Ayles- 
ford. — Vale  and  town  of  Annapolis. — Ice-holes  and  iron- works. 
— Healthiness  of  the  country.  — Handiness  and  provincialisms 
of  the  Nova  Scotians,  ..... 


Page 


CHAPTER    II. 

UP  THE  RIVER  ST  JOHN   IN   NEW  BRUNSWICK — FROM  THE  CITY  OF 
ST  JOHN   TO   THE   GRAND   FALLS. 


Area  and  population  of  New  Brunswick. — The  lumber-trade,  its 
benefits  and  evils. — Citj"  of  St  John. — Diminution  in  its  import 
trade  and  in  the  provincial  revenue. — River  St  John. — Rich 
river  flats. — Average  produce  of  Queen  s  and  Sunbury  counties. 
— City  of  Fredericton. — Farm  on  the  St  John. — Intervale  land, 
its  difierent  qualities  and  values. — Emigration  fever. — Wood- 
stock.—Quality  and  value  of  land  in  its  neighbourhood. — 
Exhausting  culture  of  firet  settlers. — Farming  on  Shares. — 
Charivari  of  the  Mkkeys  of  Woodstock.  —  Farm  at  Jackson- 


\ 
\ 


CONTENTS. 


Page 


town.— Speculators  in  land. — Iron  ore  and  iron  smelting. — 
Itinerant  lecturers. — Mouths  of  the  Tobique  and  Aroostook 
rivers. — Potato  breakfasts  and  meals  in  common. — Melliceto 
Indians  on  the  Tobique. — Irish  settlement  and  thriving  settlers. 
— Grand  Falls  and  town  of  Colebrook,  .  .  .33^ 


CHAPTER    III. 

UP  THE  ST  JOHN  TO  LITTLE   FALLS,  AND  ACROSS  THE  PROVINCE  FROM 
FREDERICTON   TO  MIRAMICHI. 

Upper  St  John. — Colonel  Coomb's  farm. — Growth  and  consump- 
tion of  buckwheat.— Valley  of  the  Madawaska. — Edmonston, 
or  Little  Falls. — Houses  of  the  Acadian  farmers. — Tea  dinners. 
— Ascent  of  the  river  Tobique. — Rich  upper  lands  of  the 
river. — Why  buckwheat  is  unfavourable  to  good  husbandry. — 
Terraces  of  the  St  John  River. — Autumnal  tints  of  North 
America. — Time  of  growth  of  grain-crops  in  New  Brunswick. — 
Sumach  trees.— Apple-orchards. — Scotch  settlement. — Making 
land  at  Fredericton. — Rising  of  stones  under  the  influence  of 
the  frost. — Fire- weeds  and  Canada  thistle. — Stanley,  the  settle- 
ment of  the  New  Brunswick  Land  Company. — Price  of  farms. 
— Running  fire  in  the  fields. — Bilberry  swamp. — Farm  and 
opinion  of  an  Aberdonian. — Raspberry  hay. — Mare's-tail  cut  for  < 
hay. — Boistown. — Great  fire  of  1825. — Gloomy  landscape. — 
Fires  in  the  forest. — Nakedness  of  the  cleared  land.— Success 
of  farmers  in  New  Brunswick. — Price  of  farms  on  the  Mira- 
michi  River.— Increasing  consumption  of  oatmeal,  .        67 


CHAPTER    IV. 

FROM  THE  MIRAMICHI  RIVER  TO  THE  CITY  OP  ST  JOHN,   BY 
SUSSEX  VALE. 

Douglastown.  —  Great  heat.  —  Mode  of  reclaiming  forest  land. — 
Plague  of  grasshoppers — Average  produce,  prices  and  wages. 
— Chatham. — Golden  rod,  a  troublesome  weed. — North  Ameri- 
can oaks. — European  weeds  on  the  cleared  lands. — History  of 
an  Annandale  settler.  —  Bay-du-Vin  schoolmaster.  —  Richi- 
bucto. — Buctouche  River. — Sweet  fern  soils. — Patience  and 
contentment  of  the  French  settlers. — Shediac,  famed  for  its 
oysters. — The  Bend-Bore  of  the  river  Petitcodiac. — Height  of 
high  water  above  that  of  the  Bay. — Case  of  Mr  Nixon. — Use  of 
river  mud.— Greater  industry  of  new  scttlei-s. — Burned  Bridge. 


CONTENTS. 


Xi 


Page 


ok 
sto 
irs. 


33 


— Beauty  of  Sussex  Vale. — Mr  Evanson's  home-farm.  —  Mr 
Alton's  farm. — Hampton,  and  its  conglomerate  soils. — Fine- 
looking  yeomen  of  New  Brunswick. — Price  of  farms. — A  dis- 
coi  tented  Irishman. — Dyked  marshes  of  St  John  and  the 
Atlantic  border. — Rate  of  wages  for  agricultural  labour  in  the 
several  counties  of  the  province,      .... 


Page 


102 


S  FROM 


mp- 

,ton, 

lers. 

the 

•y-— 
orth 

^k. — 

iking 

ce  of 

«ttle- 

arms. 

1  and 

utfor 

pe. — 

iccesa 

Mira- 


67 


CHAPTER    V. 

FKOSI  ST  JOHN   IN   NEW  BRUNSWICK  TO  SYRACUSE  IN   WESTERN 

NEW   YORK. 

Steamboat  from  St  John  to  Portland,  in  Maine.  —  Railway  to 
Newhaven,  in  Connecticut. — Alleged  rudeness  of  American 
manners. — Farming  in  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts. — Yale 
College. — Number  of  Students. — Expense  of  residence. — Infe- 
rior position  of  professional  men. — Estimation  of  lawyers  and 
medical  men. — Favouring  of  quacks. — Medical  schools  in  the 
United  States. — Elm-trees  of  Newhaven. — Tree-toad. — Fair- 
haven  ;  its  oyster-trade. — Two  species  of  American  oysters  of 
large  size. — Railway  to  Albany  up  the  Housatonic  Valley. — 
Post-tertiary  clays  and  sands  of  the  upper  valley  of  the 
Hudson  River  and  of  Lake  Champlain.  —  Natural  forests 
which  grow  upon  them. — Schenectady. — Valley  of  the  Mo- 
hawk.— Rich  bottoms  of  this  valley. — Broom  corn,  {Sorghum 
saccharatum,)  its  extensive  cultivation. — German  flats. — Utica. 
— German  population. — Change  in  the  meaning  of  familiar 
words. — Choice  of  judges  by  popular  election. — Titular  judges 
and  generals. — Popped  corn. — Flour  of  Indian  corn ;  varieties 
in  its  colour. — City  of  Rome. — Mr  Clay. — Verona. — Arrival 
at  Syracuse,    ....... 


131 


BY 


CHAPTER     VI. 


id.— 


Lmen- 
lory  of 
iRichi- 
and 
^or  its 
[ght  of 
Jseof 
Sridge. 


THE  CITY  OP  SYRACUSE  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD. 

Syracuse. — Its  rapid  growth. — Popularity  of  Mr  Clay. — Show  of  the 
New  York  State  Agricultural  Society.  —  Agricultural  imple- 
ments.— What  they  teach. — Law  against  long  leases. — Breeds 
of  stock  in  New  England,  and  in  the  Western  States. — Merino 
sheep.  —  Trotting  horaes. — Condition  of  agriculture. —  Fniit 
region  of  Western  New  York. — Profits  of  apple-growing. — 
Quantity  of  fruit  exported. — Varieties  of  apples  in  the 
United  States  and  in  Normandy. — Apple-trees  producing  a 


-w^mi 


gw'yrag' *.  »■.!   .cgy -!»'?*'».< 


V 


XII 


CONTENTS. 


Page 


! 


crop  every  yeox—Oout  de  tetrain. — Mr  Geddes's  farm. — Rich 
soils  of  the  Onondaga  Bait  group. —  Rotation  followed. — 
Exhausting  effects  of  this  rotation. — Average  produce  of  the 
State  and  of  its  richest  virestem  counties. — Profits  of  farm- 
ing.—  Property  confers  no  political  privilege.  —  Experiments 
with  gypsum. —  Wages  of  farm-servants. —  Section  of  the 
wheat  region  of  western  New  York. — Beautiful  relation  of 
the  soils  to  the  rocks. — Quantity  of  salt  manufactured  at 
Syracuse. — Consumption  of  salt  in  the  United  States  and  in 
Great  Britain.— Revenue  from  the  salt  springs. — Method  of 
extracting  the  salt,     .  .  .  .  .  .157 


CHAPTER     VII. 

FROM  SYRACUSE  TO  BUFFALO  AT  THE  FOOT  OF  LAKE  ERIE. 

Railway  to  Buffalo. — The  Americans  a  clever  people. — Joe  Smith, 
founder  of  the  Mormons. — His  removal  to  Missouri,  to  Ohio, 
and  Illinois. — Progress  of  his  sect. — New  State  of  Utah,  on 
the  Salt  Lake. — Character  of  the  book  of  Mormon. — Canan- 
dagua.— City  of  Rochester. — Genesee  flour. — Value  of  farms 
on  the  Genesee  River. — Profits  of  farming  in  this  valley. — Mr 
Wadsworth's  farms  and  farming.  —  Inducements  to  invest 
money  in  land  in  New  York  State. — Relative  values  of  rural 
produce  and  of  human  labour.  —  Average  produce  of  the 
Genesee  country. — New  York  does  not  produce  wheat  enough 
for  its  own  consumption. — North-east  America  not  a  danger- 
ous competitor  in  the  English  wheat  market. — Duty  upon 
Canadian  wheat. — Importance  of  the  direct  trade  to  Europe 
by  the  St  Lawrence. — Erie  Canal ;  its  traffic  and  revenue. — 
Number  of  emigrants  from  different  countries. — Influence  of 
New  England  on  the  development  of  the  new  States. — Demo- 
cratic party. — Principles  of  the  Old  Hunkers  and  the  Barn- 
burners, .....  .  .      192 


CHAPTER     Vin. 

BUFFALO  AND  THE   NORTH-WESTERN  STATES. 

City  of  Buffalo ;  causes  of  its  rapid  rise. — Influence  of  the  growth 
of  the  Western  States  on  the  agriculture  of  western  New 
York  and  Upper  Canada. — Home  ideas  as  to  these  new 
States. — Cheap  wheat  does  not  imply  rich  land. — Michigan. — 
Average  produce  of  this  State,  and  of  its  several  counties. — Con 


)  f 


CONTENTS. 


•  •• 

Xlll 


the  export  of  wheat  from  these  new  States  continue  1 — Quantity 
of  seed-corn  per  acre  sown  in  the  several  States. — Copper 
mines  of  Lake  Superior. — Immense  masses  of  native  copper. 
— How  they  occur. — Ancient  Indian  workings. — State  of 
Wisconsin. — Popular  feeling  in  regard  to  the  several  new 
States. — Land  sold  in  each  in  1847. — Minnesota,  the  New 
England  of  the  West. — Influence  of  these  new  States  on  the 
future  traffic  of  the  St  Lawrence.  —  Wonders  of  the  hog 
crop  of  Ohio. — Indian  corn  the  staple  of  Ohio. — Hogs  killed 
in  the  western  States.  —  How  they  are  fed.  —  "  Packing 
business"  at  Cincinnati. — Various  marketable  products  of  this 
business  at  Cincinnati,  ..... 


Pago 


221 


CHAPTER     IX. 

FROM  BUFFALO  TO  THE  FALLS,  AND  DOWN  LAKE  ONTARIO  TO  KINGSTON 

IN  LOWER  CANADA. 

Case  of  American  cleverness. — Butcher  in  Buffalo. — Influence  of 
Europe  on  the  progress  of  American  cities. — Cause  of  dif- 
ference in  the  progress  of  Canadian  and  New  York  cities. — 
Lake  Erie. — Supposed  periodical  rise  and  fall  in  the  level  of 
the  great  lakes. — Water  discharged  by  the  Niagara  River. — 
Hotel  at  the  Falls. — Coloured  waiters. — Geological  Section  at 
the  Falls. — ^Wearing  action  of  the  water. — Influence  of  the 
winds  on  Lake  Erie. — Influence  of  the  noise  of  the  Falls 
on  their  impression  upon  the  mind.  —  Railway  to  Lewis- 
town.  —  View  from  the  mountain  ridge.  —  Voyage  on 
Lake  Ontario.  —  Profits  of  New  York  farming  by  a  New 
York  farmer. — City  of  Oswego. — Sackett's  Harbour. — Railway 
to  Canada. — Kingston  in  Upper  Canada. — Character  of  the 
Upper  Canadians.— Difference  between  a  Canadian  and  a  New 
York  wife  to  a  working  man,  .  .  .  .  __  242 


CHAPTER    X. 

KINGSTON  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD. 

Kingston.  —  Show  of  the  Upper  Canada  Agricultural  Society. — 
Implements  in  the  show-yard.  —  Canadian  coffee.  —  British 
sympathy  with  colonial  grievances. — Alleged  pusillanimity  of 
the  Governor-general  —  Wheat  the  surest  crop  in  Canada 
West. — Total  produce  of  Canada  West,  and  average  yield  per 
acre. — Diminished  productiveness  of  the  wheat-crop. — Social 
position  of  the  farming  class  in  Upper  Canada.  —  United 


"RBBDWaRSK" 


Xiy  CONTENTS. 


Empire  Loyalists. — Indian-corn  whisky. — Extensive  manufac- 
ture of  it  at  Cincinnati  in  Ohio.  —  Whisky  from  pease. — 
Prospects  of  Kingston. — The  Thousand  Isles  of  the  River 
St  Lawrence. — Descending  the  rapids.  —  The  Sault  St  Louis. 
—Approach  to  Montreal.  —  Metamorphic  limestone  rich  in 
phosphate  of  lime. — Agricultural  value  of  this  rock. — Deposits 
of  mineral  phosphate  in  the  State  of  New  York.  —  Origin  of 
this  mineral  phosphate,  and  of  garnet,  graphite,  &c.  found  in 
crystalline  limestones. — Singular  contortions  exhibited  by  this 
limestone,       ....... 


Page 


264 


^ 


CHAPTER    XL 

MONTREAL  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD. 

Montx'eal.  — New  churches. — Ruins  of  the  Parliament  House. — 
Scotch  farmers  in  the  Island  of  Montreal. — Cultivation  of 
hops.— Price  of  land. — French  Canadian  fanns  and  fanning. 
— Clerical  obstacles  to  the  settlement  of  Protestant  farmers. — 
Importance  of  a  better  husbandry  in  Lower  Canada. — Instruc- 
tion in  agricultural  principles. — Excursion  to  St  Hilaire. — Sfc 
Lawrence  and  Atlantic  railroad. — Maple  sugar  manufacture 
in  Canada  and  the  adjoining  States.  —  Soil  of  the  valley  of  St 
Lawrence.  —  Pigeon  or  stone  weed,  its  prevalence.  —  What  its 
history  teaches. — Belloeil  Mountain. — Beautiful  view  of  the  St 
Lawrence  flats. — Exhaustion  of  this  formerly  fertile  region. — 
Seignorial  tenure  of  land. — Reserved  rights  of  the  seigneur. — 
Sherbrooke. — Lands  of  the  "  Canadian  Land  Company,"  in  the 
eastern  counties. — Their  progress. — Voyage  to  Quebec. — The 
Ottawa  River  and  District.  —  Its  rising  importance.  —  British 
and  French  in  Montreal.  —  Parties  in  the  city.  —  Why 
British  members  from  Upper  Canada  voted  for  the  Rebellion 
Losses  Bill, — Explanation  of  one  of  their  number, 


s.  m 


287 


CHAPTER    XXL 

FROM  QUEBEC  DOWN  THE  ST  LAWRENCE  TO   THE  MITIS  RIVER. 

Land  opposite  Quebec.  —  Its  quality  and  value. — Few  immigrants 
into  this  region. — Roman  Catholic  seminary. — Self-sacrifice  of 
the  teachers  — Falls  of  Montmorenci. — Sun-setting  on  Quebec. 
— Proportions  of  the  diflferent  sects. — Comparative  prosperity 
of  Montreal  and  Quebec.  —  Fires  in  the  latter  city. — Journey 
down  the  Sfc  Lawrence. — Flat  lands  of  St  Thomas. — St  Roque 


CONTENTS. 


XV 


des  Annaia. — Long  farming  streets. — Uppoi'Bay  of  Kamouraska. 
— Price  of  fanns. — College  of  St  Anne. — Rapid  increase  of  the 
French  population. — Early  marriages.  —  Healthiness  of  the 
climate.  —  Comparative  births  and  deaths  in  Lower  Canada 
and  in  England. — Kamouraska.— Village  of  Du  Loup. — Cacona. 
— Extent  of  wild  land  in  these  lower  counties. — Large  families 
of  the  peasantry. — Subdivisions  of  farms. — Resemblance  of  the 
poorer  habitants  to  the  poorer  Irish. — Wages  in  the  Rimouski 
district. — Longitudinal  valleys  parallel  with  the  St  Lawrence. 
— Bog-earth  of  North  America. — Rimouski. — Irish  landlord. — 
Scotch  settlors  at  Mitis,         ..... 


Page 


322 


CHAPTER    XIIL 

THE  AGRICULTURE   AND   WHEAT-PRODUCINO    CAPABILITY  OP    THE    UNITED 
STATES  AND  CANADA — AND  THE   NAVIGATION   OF  THE  ST  LAWRENCE. 

Ideas  generally  entertained  of  American  fertility  and  agricultural 
resources.  —  Agriculture  as  an  art  in  North  America. —  Effect 
of  general  exhaustion  on  the  production  of  staple  crops. — 
Retreat  of  the  wheat-exporting  lands  towards  the  west. — Re- 
markable change  in  Lower  Canada. — Its  effect  on  the  corn- 
markets  of  the  world. — Similar  changes  probable  in  other 
parts  of  North  Amei'ica. — Import  duty  on  Canadian  Corn. — 
Would  its  removal  beneiit  Canada  as  a  whole] — Why  can 
Rochester  millers  compete  with  Canadian! — Large  profits 
expected  in  Canada. — Growth  of  flax  and  export  of  linseed. — 
The  St  Lawrence  the  natural  outlet  of  the  Lake-bordering 
countries. — Exertions  of  Canada  in  the  construction  of  canals. 
— Its  energy  compared  with  that  of  New  York. — Ohio  wheat 
will  prefer  the  St  Lawrence  to  the  Mississippi  route. — Impor- 
tance of  this  route  to  the  political  independence  of  the  free 
North-western  States. — Difficulties  and  future  prospects  of 
the  navigation  of  the  St  Lawrence,    ....      354 


CIS  BIVEU. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

fROM  MITIS  ON  THE  ST  LAWRENCE   BT  THE   KEMPT  ROAD  ACROSS  THE 
PENINSULA  OF  GASPfi  TO   CAMPBELTON  AND  DALHOUSIE  ON   THE 

BESTIQOUCHE. 

I  Road  through  the  forest.  —  Clearings  and  accommodations  by  the 
way.— Great  Metapediac  Lake.— Little  lake.— Burned  forests 
and  bridges.- Noble's.-First  green  fields.— Home  associations. 


I 


if 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

— Scotch  eettlers.  —  Yankee  adventurers.  —  Campbolton. — 
River  HeHtigouche. — Flat  lands. — Views  on  the  river. — Old 
settlers,  their  fond  recollections  of  home. — Home  and  provin- 
cial geographers. — Indian  settlement. — Sugar-loaf  Mountain. — 
Agricultural  societies  and  shows.  —  Lumber-trade  on  this 
river. — Town  of  Dalhousie. — Settlement  on  the  Eel  River. — 
Illustrations  of  social  and  domestic  differences  between  the 
States  and  the  provinces. — Ancient  republics  and  modern, 


Page 


384 


I     , 


NOTES 


OH 


NORTH     AMERICA 


CHAPTEB    I. 


Halifax  in  Nova  Scotia. — Fresh  complexions  of  the  people. — Roman 
Catholic  f6te.— Roman  Catholics  in  Halifax. — Precedence  and  title 
conceded  to  Bishops. — Coloured  people  in  Nova  Scotia. — Micmac 
Indians. — Maritime  commerce  of  Nova  Scotia,  its  certain  extension. 
— Mackerel  fishery. — Shoals  of  mackerel. — Export  of  salt  fish. — 
Scratched  rocks,  and  agricultural  character  of  the  neighbourhood  of 
Halifax. — Stony  and  unfertile  surface  of  the  coast  line. — Young's 
Letters  of  Agncola. — Increase  of  population  in  Nova  Scotia. — Propor- 
tion of  the  agricultural  produce  to  the  population. — Inner  Bay  of 
Halifax. — Railway  from  Halifax  to  Windsor. — Soils  and  forests  of  tho 
Ardoise  hills.— Drought  of  1849.— Pacing  horses  of  Canada. — How 
trained  in  Sardinia. — Gypsum  quarries  at  Windsor. — River  Avon. — 
Dyked  alluvial  lands  of  the  Bay  of  Minas. — Varieties  of  land,  and 
their  money -values. — Sand  plain  of  Aylesford. — Structui-e  of  the  vale 
of  Annapolis. — To^vn  of  Annapolis. — Ice-holes  in  the  North  Moim- 
tains.  —  Ironworks  of  Bear  river. — Healthiness  of  the  country. — 
Handiness  of  the  Nova  Scotians. — Blue-nose  provincialisms. 

On  Saturday  the  28th  of  July,  at  3  p.m.,  I  sailed  from 
Liverpool  in  the  steam-ship  America.  We  took  the 
northern  course  ;  lust  sight  of  the  west  coast  of  Ireland 
;  on  the  afternoon  of  Sunday  the  29th ;  about  noon  of  the 
[following  Sunday  came  in  sight  of  Newfoundland;  and 
VOL.  I.  A 


H« 


\i 


8 


ROCKY  SHORES  OF  NOVA  SCOTIA. 


early  on  tlio  morning  of  Tuesday  the  7th  of  August,  I 
landed  at  Halifax  in  Nova  Scotia.  We  had  thus  a 
pleasant  passage  of  nine  days  and  fifteen  hours ;  and  as 
we  had  an  agreeable  party,  we  felt  almost  sorry  our 
voyage  had  been  so  short. 

The  noble  harbour  of  Halifax,  in  which  all  the  navies 
of  the  world  might  securely  float,  is  only  one  of  the  count- 
less inlets  and  basins  which  the  Atlantic  coast  of  Nova 
8cotia,  from  Cape  Canseau  to  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  every- 
where presents.  The  jagged  outline  of  this  coast,  as 
seen  upon  the  map,  reminds  us  of  the  equally  indented 
Atlantic  shores  of  Scandinavia ;  and  the  character  of  the 
coast,  as  he  sails  along  it — the  rocky  surface,  the  scanty 
herbage,  and  the  endless  pine  forests — recall  to  the 
traveller  the  appearance  and  natural  productions  of  the 
same  European  country. 

The  coast  of  Nova  Scotia  is  indeed  very  unpromising 
in  an  agricultural  sense ;  and  though  of  the  surface  of 
the  province  there  are  in  reality  three  and  a  half  millions 
of  acres  which  present  to  the  Norwegian,  the  Swede, 
or  the  Finlander,  the  rocky  soils,  scenery,  and,  generally 
speaking,  the  natural  productions  of  his  own  country,  yet 
both  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick  have  in  reality 
been  unjustly  depressed  in  European  estimation  by  the 
character  of  their  shores.  The  greater  number  of  those 
who  have  hitherto  returned  to  Europe  from  this  part  of 
North  America,  and  who  have  regulated  European 
opinion  in  regard  to  it,  have  seen  only  the  coast  line,  or 
the  interior  of  its  rocky  harbours;  and  these  are  cer- 
tainly as  naked  and  inhospitable  as  an  inhabited  country 
can  well  be.  Those  who  have  sailed  along  the  Baltic 
shores  of  Sweden  and  Finland,  or  to  Gothenburg  by  the 
estuary  of  the  Gotha,  or  among  the  rocks  and  inlets  of 
the  western  coast  of  Norway,  will  be  able  to  realise, 
without  visiting  them,  what  the  sailor  sees  on  the  shores 
of  our  American  colonies. 


W 
-<** 


FUE8H  COMPLEXIONS  OF  THE  PEOPLE.       3 

But  the  interior  parts  of  these  provinces  are  not 
represented  bj  tiiese  barren  borders.  Thougii  they  do 
contain  large  tracts  of  poor  and  difficult  land,  yet  rich 
districts  recur  at  intervals,  which  rival  in  natural  fertil- 
ity the  most  productive  counties  of  Great  Britain.  The 
colonists  complain,  with  reason,  that  the  evil  opinion 
entertained  of  them  has  diverted  the  tide  of  English 
settlers,  English  capital,  and  English  enterprise,  to 
more  southern  or  western  regions,  not  more  favoured  by 
nature  than  they  are  themselves. 

A  European  stranger  who,  on  landing  in  Halifax, 
looks  for  the  sallow  visage  and  care-worn  expression 
which  distinguish  so  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  north- 
ern States  of  the  Union,  will  be  pleased  to  see  the  fresh 
and  blooming  complexions  of  the  females  of  all  classes, 
and  I  may  say  of  almost  all  ages.  Youth  flourishes 
longer  here,  and  we  scarcely  observe,  in  stepping  from 
England  to  Nova  Scotia,  that  we  have  as  yet  reached  a 
climate  which  bears  heavier  upon  young  Jooks  and  female 
beauty  than  our  own. 

The  day  of  my  landing  at  Halifax  was  a  f6te-day 
among  the  Eoman  Catholic  schools.    Twelve  hundred 
children,  in  holiday  dresses,  were  marching  in  long  pro- 
cession by  nine  in  the  morning,  with  flags  and  banners 
and  music,  along  the  main  street  of  the  city,  and  thence 
under  a  triumphal  arch  of  flowers  and  an  avenue  of  green 
pine-trees,  planted  for  the  occasion,  to  a  steamboat  which 
was  in  waiting  to  convey  them  across  the  bay  to  M'Nab's 
Island,  where  the  amusements  of  the  day  were  provided. 
As  music  and  dancing  and  refreshments  were  among  the 
entertainments,  this  fete  attracted  a  large  assemblage  of 
all  parties,  whom  rigid  religious  views  did  not  restrain 
from   countenancing   a  public   display  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  body.    As  a  stranger,  I  was  grateful  to  the 
provincial  secretary,  Mr  Howe,  for  an  invitation   to 
accompany  him  and  his  family  in  the  afternoon  to  the 


-TT- 


■■•■ 


>     I 


ji' 


i 


f 


t 


9f 


4 


UNRESTRAINED  AND   EQUAL   INTERCOURSE. 


scene  of  festivity.  Wo  crossed  the  bay  in  a  steamboat 
crowded  almost  to  suftbcation ;  and  it  was  here,  and 
among  the  thousands  whom  I  saw  on  the  island,  that  I 
was  enabled  to  judge  of  the  adaptation  of  the  northern 
climate  to  the  complexions  of  our  island  population. 

In  Europe,  it  is  in  countries  which,  like  Great  Britain, 
Ireland,  and  Holland,  are  surrounded  by  an  atmosphere 
rarely  ariu  or  dry,  either  from  excessive  cold  or  from 
excessive  heat,  but  which,  more  or  less  loaded  with  mois- 
ture, always  softens  and  expands  the  minute  vessels  of  the 
skin,  that  health  and  freshness  of  complexion  in  both  sexes 
is  most  conspicuously  perceived  and  most  permanent. 
To  the  fogs  and  rains,  therefore,  which  so  frequently  visit 
this  and  other  parts  of  the  Nortli  American  coast,  lying 
within  the  influence  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  the  healthy  looks 
of  the  people  are  probably  in  some  measure  to  be  ascribed. 

I  was  early  struck,  on  this  my  first  day's  residence  In 
North  America,  with  the  less  constrained  and  more  equal 
intercourse  which  appeared  to  prevail  between  what  we 
should  call  the  different  classes  of  society.     The  servant 
and  the  mistress,  the  mechanic  and  the  barrister,  with 
little  distinction  of  dress  or  behaviour,  discoursed  on  a 
perfect  equality,  and  persons  filling  the  highest  political 
offices  were  jostled  about  as  unceremoniously,  and  were 
as  familiarly  hailed,  as  the  humblest  of  the  crowd.     The 
secret  is,  that  every  one  feels  what  I  understood  when 
my  friend  said  to  me,  "  That  girl  may  marry,  and  be 
better  off  than  her  mistress  to-morrow ;  and  the  lowest  of 
these  men  may  rise  to  the  highest  civil  office  in  the  pro- 
vince."    As  the  ermine  of  the  bench,  and  the  mitre  of 
the  archiepiscopal  seat,  secure  to  the  humblest  member 
of  two  of  our  learned  professions  in  England  a  portion 
of  that  respect  with  which  we  look  upon  a  future  Lord 
Chancellor  or  a  possible  Archbishop,  so  I  suppose  the 
sense  of  equal  opportunities  being  open  to  all  entitles  each 
man  in  these  provinces  to  a  more  equal  consideration. 


ROMAN   CATHOLIC  BODY.  f 

Tlic  Eoman  Catholic  body  in  Halifax  is  strong  and 
growing,  chiefly  through  the  yearly  accession,  "t"  emi- 
grant Irish  and  their  descendants,  who  here  appear  to 
thrive,  and  are  said  to  be  well-behaved.  The  Pres- 
byterians used  to  be,  and  probably  still  arc,  the  most 
numerous  of  the  religious  sects  in  Halifax,  and  next  to 
them  the  Episcopalians  of  the  Church  of  England.  The 
Boman  Catholics  have  of  late  years  increased,  and  they 
have  obtained  an  advantage  over  the  non-Episcopal  sects 
in  the  title  of  "  My  Lord,"  lately  conceded  to  their  bishop 
by  order  of  the  Home  Government,  and  in  virtue  of  which 
he  takes  rank  with  the  Church  of  England  bishop,  and 
precedence  of  all  the  dissenting  clergy. 

That  this  is  a  great  griev.ance  in  the  eyes  of  the  Pres- 
byterians and  others,  in  the  two  colonies  of  Nova  Scotia 
and  New  Brunswick,  I  was  scarcely  a  day  in  Halifax  till 
I  had  learned.  Until  recently,  the  bishop  of  the  "  Church 
of  England  in  the  colonies  "  was  the  only  person 
addressed  as  "  My  Lord," — a  solitary  and  invidious  title 
among  a  people  composed,  for  the  most  part,  of  what  we 
call  dissenters  in  England,  and  in  a  country  where  so 
little  distinction  of  ranks  prevails.  It  became  less  singu- 
lar when  the  same  title  was  conceded  to  the  Koman 
Catholic  bishops,  and,  of  course,  a  greater  number  of 
persons  became  interested  in  keeping  up  this  distinction. 
But  the  hostile  feeling  was  in  consequence  only  made 
stronger  in  the  breasts  of  the  majority  of  the  people. 

Such  distinctions  in  a  colony,  it  appears  to  me,  ought 
to  be  conceded,  not  for  an  imperial,  but  for  a  provincial 
reason — not  because  a  certain  religious  body  is  powerful 
in  Europe,  but  in  consideration  of  the  feelings  and  wishes 
of  a  large  body  of  the  colonists  themselves.  Now,  if  this 
latter  reason  had  been  influential,  there  are  other  sects 
to  whom  some  equal  distinction  ought  to  have  been  con- 
ceded. The  Presbyterians  and  Baptists  are  both  stronger 
bodies  than  either  the  English  Episcopal  or  the  Roman 


-^ 


-i(ii '  LiuifiWIIriiHiriiii 


m 


6  POLICY  OF  CONCEDING  CLERICAL  RANK. 

Catholic  in  the  colonies  of  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Bruns- 
wick, and  therefore  more  entitled  to  consideration  at  the 
fountciin  of  honour.  If  there  be  any  way  in  which  it 
could  be  done,  therefore,  the  head  of  these  several  bodies 
— their  moderator  or  president  for  the  time  being — 
should  be  equally  honoured  with  the  more  permanent 
heads  of  the  Episcopalian  sects  ; — that  is,  if  the  distinc- 
tive title  is  to  be  retained  at  all,  and  the  precedence  of 
high  clerical  office  retained. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  Presbyterian,  Baptist,  and 
other  bodies,  are  opposed  upon  principle  to  the  connec- 
tion of  honorary  precedence  with  clerical  office,  and  have 
therefore  never  asked  such  distinctions  for  the  head  of 
their  several  denominations.     This  is  probably  true  ;  but 
my  intercourse  with  the  inhabitants  of  these  colonies  has 
satisfied  me  thjit  much  lurking  ill-will  against  the  mother 
country  has  arisen  from  the  kind  of  half-establishment 
originally  granted  to  the  English  Church  ;  and  that  this 
ill-will,  instead  of  being  lessened,  has  been  deepened  in 
intensity  by  the  selection  of  the  Boman  Catholic  body 
for  a  similar  distinction.    Why  should  the  mother  country 
procure  ill-will — manufacture  it,  I  may  say,  for  herself — 
by  intermeddling  in  the  religious  disputes  of  the  different 
denominations  in  the  colonies  ?   Either  we  ought  to  leave 
these  entirely  to  the  control  of  the  local  legislature,  as 
all  other  internal  political  and  social  matters  now  are 
left,  or  the  offer,  at  least,  of  similar  honours  should  be 
made  to  the  head  of  each  religious  body  possessing  a 
certain  numerical  force,  and  consequent  political  weight, 
in  the  province.     This  offer,  whether  accepted  or  not, 
would  at  least  remove  the  complaint  of  invidious  distinc- 
tions from  the  shoulders  of  the  Home  Government,  and 
would  confine  the  discussion  in  future  to  the  general 
question  of  precedence  or  no  precedence  to  the  holders 
of  high  clerical  office.     Should  any  unfortunate  circum- 
stances bring  about  a  separation  from  the  mother  country, 


■M 


COLOURED  PEOPLE   IN   HALIFAX. 


Y  Bruns- 
on  at  the 
which  it 
ral  bodies 
being— 
»ermanent 
le  distinc- 
iedence  of 

tptist,  and 
le  connec- 
1,  and  have 
lie  head  of 
f  true ;  but 
lolonies  has 
the  mother 
:abli8hment 
id  that  this 
leepened  in 
tholic  body 
ler  country 
)r  herself — 
he  different 
ght  to  leave 
;islature,  as 
3r8  now  are 
s  should  be 
)0ssessing  a 
;ical  weight, 
,ted  or  not, 
ious  distinc- 
•nment,  and 
the  general 
the  holders 
late  circura- 
her  country. 


iK-'  Si 


such  distinctions  in  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick 
would  certainly  not  be  permitted  to  exist  for  another  hour. 
On  the  field  upon  M'Nab's  Island,  where  the  people 
were  assembled,  were  music  and  dancing  parties  in  differ- 
ent places ;  swings  and  refreshment  stalls,  whites  of  all 
grades,  and  darkies  of  different  shades ;  but  I  saw  neither 
intoxication  nor  disorder,  nor  rudeness,  nor  incivility 
anywhere.  A  little  of  the  liveliness  of  the  early  French 
settlers  probably  clings  to  the  modern  Nova  Scotian;  but 
though  there  were  many  both  Irish-born  and  of  Irish 
descent  among  the  crowd,  there  was  no  shade  of  a  dispo- 
sition to  an  Irish  row. 

Many  coloared  people,  some  apparently  full-blood 
negroes,  were  to  be  seen  in  the  streets  of  Halifax  acting 
as  porters,  and  in  other  humble  employments.  A  few  of 
these  looked  miserable  enough. 

As  far  back  as  the  close  of  the  American  war,  numbers 
of  coloured  people  came  here,  either  with  their  loyalist 
masters,  or  alone,  and  at  the  expense  of  Government. 
These  early  settlers  have  multiplied  and  become  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  acclimatised,  and  many  of  them  are  Industrious 
owners  of  small  farms.  Generally,  however,  the  negroes 
are  spoken  of  as  indolent,  as  hanging  about  the  towns, 
and  as  suffering  much  from  the  severity  of  the  winter. 

People  of  colour  enjoy,  I  believe,  in  all  the  British 
colonies  of  North  America,  the  same  political  privileges 
as  are  possessed  by  other  classes  of  her  Majesty's  subjects. 
1 1  went  into  the  jury  court,  where  the  author  of  Sam  Slick 
was  the  presiding  judge,  and  I  was  both  surprised  and 
pleased  to  see  a  perfectly  black  man  sitting  there  in  the 
box  as  a  juroi'. 

Among  the  other  novelties  to  a  stranger  in  Halifax  is 
|an  encampment  of  the  Micmac  Indians,  whose  wigwams 
[I  found  pitched  upon  some  high  ground  above  the  town 
I  of  Dartmouth,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  bay.  These 
f  Indians  have  a  broad  Asiatic  face  :  and  are  more  intelli- 


MICMAC   INDIANS. 


gent,  but  less  patient  of  restraint  than  the  negroes.  Little 
real  success  has  attended  the  many  attempts  which  halve 
been  made  to  educate  and  localise  them.  They  have 
become  faithful  Roman  Catholics,  are  obedient  to  their 
priests,  regular  at  confession,  and  very  honest ;  but  they 
do  not  settle  steadily  to  the  monotonous  labours  of  agri- 
culture, or  to  the  confinement  either  of  domestic  service, 
or  of  regular  handicraft  or  mechanical  trades. 

In  the  first  wigwam  I  entered,  I  found  half-a-dozen 
men  playing  at  cards ;  and,  in  the  next,  as  many  women 
and  children  making  baskets.  Their  English  is  broken, 
and  to  each  other  they  converse  in  their  native  tongue. 
They  are  diminishing  in  numbers,  many  having  been 
carried  off  some  time  ago  by  a  fever,  which  raged  spe- 
cially among  themselves;  but  there  are  said  still  to  remain 
five  thousand  of  them  in  Nova  Scotia. 

In  the  harbour  of  Halifax,  I  saw  few  large  ships; 
there  were,  however,  many  small  vessels  employed  either 
in  the  fisheries  or  in  the  coasting  trade  to  the  States 
and  the  Canadas.  There  are  four  circumstances  which 
seem  to  concur  in  promising  a  great  future  extension  to 
this  maritime  portion  of  Nova  Scotian  industry.  In  the 
first  place,  the  sea  and  bays,  and  inlets  along  the  whole 
Atlantic  border,  swarm  with  fish  of  many  kinds,  which 
are  the  natural  inheritance  of  the  Nova  Scotian  fisher- 
men. Second,  this  coast  is  everyAvhere  indented  with 
creeks  and  harbours,  from  which  the  native  boats  can  at 
all  times  issue,  and  to  which  they  can  flee  for  shelter. 
Thirdly,  there  exists  in  the  native  forests — and  over  three 
millions  of  acres  in  this  province  probably  always  will 
exist — an  inexhaustible  supply  of  excellent  timber  for  the 
shipbuilder.  And,  lastly,  from  the  influence  of  the  Gulf 
stream  most  probably,  the  harbours  of  Nova  Scotia  are, 
in  ordinary  seasons,  open  and  unfrozen  during  the  entire 
winter ;  while,  north  of  Cape  Canseau,  the  harbours  and 
rivers  of  Prince  Edward's  Island  and  of  the  Canadas  are 


I 


FISHERIES  OF  NOVA  SCOTIA.  9 

closed  up  by  ice.  This  latter  circumstance,  if  a  railway 
should  be  made  from  Halifax  to  the  St  Lawrence,  ought 
to  place  the  West  India  trade  of  a  large  portion  of  the 
Canadas  and  of  New  Brunswick  in  the  hands  of  the  Nova 
Scotia  merchants  —  while  all  the  circumstances  taken 
together  will  doubtless,  in  the  end,  make  them  the  chief 
purveyors  of  fish  both  to  Europe  and  America.  At  pre- 
sent, they  complain  of  the  bounties  given  by  their  several 
Governments  to  the  French  and  United  States  fishermen. 
But  bounties  are  in  all  countries  only  a  temporary  expe- 
dient :  one  part  of  a  people  gets  tired  at  last,  of  paying 
another  part  to  do  what  is  not  otherwise  profitable ; 
bounties  are  therefore  abolished,  and  employment  in  con- 
sequence languishes.  The  fisheries  of  Nova  Scotia  are 
the  surer  to  last  that  they  are  permitted  or  encouraged 
to  spriug  up  naturally,  without  artificial  stimulus,  and  in 
the  face  of  an  ardent  competition. 

Of  the  coast  fisheries,  the  most  important  to  the  trade 
of  Halifax  is  that  of  mackerel.  This  fish  abounds  along 
the  whole  shores,  but  the  best  takes  are  usually  made  in 
the  Gulf  of  St  Lawrence,  off  the  shores  of  Cape  Breton 
and  Prince  Edward's  Island,  and  especially  at  Canseau, 
where  the  quantity  of  fish  has  been  ''  so  great  at  times  as 
actiialljj  to  obstruct  navigation.'''"^  The  excitement  caused 
by  the  arrival  of  a  shoal  of  mackerel,  is  thus  described 
by  Judge  Haliburton,  in  The  Old  Judge: — 

"  Well,  when  our  friends  the  mackarel  strike  in  towards 
the  shore,  and  travel  round  the  province  to  the  northward, 
the  whole  coasting  population  is  on  the  stir  too.  Perhaps 
there  never  was  seen,  under  the  blessed  light  of  the  sun, 
anything  like  the  everlasting  number  of  mackarel  in  one 
shoal  on  our  sea-coast.  Millions  is  too  little  a  word  for 
it ;  acres  of  them  is  too  small  a  tarm  to  give  a  right 
notion  ;   miles  of  them,  perhaps,  is  more  like  the  thing  ; 


*  Gesucr's  Jndmtnal  licsourcca.  p.  124. 


Bi-rriiirirrriiM 


lUM 


10 


SHOALS  AND  EXPORTS  OP  MACKEREL. 


and,  when  they  rise  to  the  surface,  it's  a  solid  body  of 
fish  you  sail  through.  It's  a  beautiful  sight  to  see  them 
come  tumbling  into  a  harbour,  head  over  tail,  and  tail 
over  head,  jumping  and  thumping,  sputtering  and  flutter- 
ing, lashing  and  thrashing,  with  a  gurgling  kind  of  sound, 
as  much  as  to  say, '  Here  we  are,  my  hearties  !  How  are 
you  off  for  salt  ?  Is  your  barrels  all  ready  ? — because  we 
are.  So  bear  a  hand  and  out  with  your  nets,  as  we  are 
off  to  the  next  harbour  to-morrow,  and  don't  wait  for 
such  lazy  fellows  as  you  be.'  "  * 

A  ready  market  for  this  fish  is  found  in  the  United 
States ;  and  the  absolute  as  well  as  comparative  value  of 
the  trade  to  Nova  Scotia,  may  be  judged  of  from  the 
following  return  of  the  quantities  of  pickled  fish  of  the 
most  plentiful  kinds,  exported  from  Halifax  in  1847 : — 


Alewives, 
SaltnoQ, 
Herrings, 
Mackerel, 


Barrels. 

7000 

6000 

22,000 

190,000 


From  Cape  Breton  and  Newfoundland  the  largest 
export  consists  of  cod-fish. 

The  day  after  my  arrival  at  Halifax,  I  drove  round 
the  peninsula  on  which  the  city  stands,  and  up  the  north- 
west arm — an  inlet  or  creek,  by  which  the  peninsula  is 
formed,  and  which  runs  inland  from  the  bay  a  few  miles 
behind  Halifax. 

To  one  who  wishes  to  form  a  general  idea  of  the 
agricultural  character  and  capabilities,  as  well  as  of  the 
geological  structure  and  botanical  relations  of  the  Atlantic 
border  of  the  province,  this  drive  is  very  instructive. 
On  a  clear  sunny  day  the  views  are  beautiful,  and  the 
ride  most  exhilarating.  The  old  slate  rocks  are  inter- 
spersed with  masses  of  granite — probably,  in  many  cases, 

*  The  Old  Judge,  by  Sam  Slick,  vol.  ii.  p.  96. 


the  grJ 

of  thol 

to  the 

drudgii 

J^oughl 

jConipai| 

[Americ 


COUNTRY  BOUND  HALIFAX. 


11 


only  old  stratified  rocks,  a  little  more  changed  than 
themselves — while  stunted  pine-woods  and  peaty  hollows 
form  the  principal  features  of  the  surface.  Anciently 
submerged,  however,  as  all  this  country  has  been,  there 
are  everywhere  visible  traces  of  those  currents  or  glaciers 
which  about  the  same  period  scratched  and  grooved  so 
large  a  portion  of  the  northern  continents  of  Europe  and 
America.  Scratches,  continuous,  deeply  cut,  generally 
parallel,  but  frequently  crossing  each  other  at  angles  of 
ten  to  twenty  degrees,  are  beautifully  seen  on  the  broad 
naked  granite  surface  of  Point  Pleasant,  on  which  the 
fort  stands,  upwards  of  a  hundred  feet  above  the  sea,  and 
at  other  places  in  that  immediate  neighbourhood.  These 
markings,  with  the  accumulated  drift  and  boulders, 
strengthen  more  the  general  likeness  of  the  country  to 
what  the  visitor  may  have  seen  about  Stockholm  in 
Sweden,  or  Helsingfors  in  Finland. 

Difficult  to  the  farmer,  and  eminently  stony,  the  country 
about  Halifax  really  is.  In  some  places,  boulders  of 
various  sizes  are  scattered  sparsely  over  the  surface ;  in 
others  they  literally  cover  the  land ;  while  in  rarer  spots 
they  are  heaped  upon  each  other,  as  if  intentionally  accu- 
mulated for  some  after  use.  One  ought  to  visit  a  country 
like  this,  while  new  to  the  plough,  in  order  to  understand 
what  must  have  been  the  original  condition  of  much  of 
the  land  in  our  own  country,  Avhich  the  successive  labours 
of  many  generations  have  now  smoothed  and  levelled. 

When  Caesar  invaded  Britain,  stony  deserts  might 
exist  where  the  plough  now  easily  cuts  the  soil ;  so  that 
the  greater  produce  is  not  due  alone  to  the  higher  skill 
I  of  those  who  now  cultivate  the  land,  but  more  probably 
I  to  the  effect  of  labour  and  hard  toil  expended  upon  it  by 
drudging  serfs  in  former  ages.  The  northern  end  of 
^  Lough  Corrib,  in  Ireland,  would  probably  still  bear  a 
M  comparison  with  many  of  these  difficult  places  in  North 
lAmerica.    The  huge  walls  of  stones  which  the  peasantry 


% 


12 


PROSPECTS  OF  THIS  STONY  SURFACE. 


have  gathered  from  their  fields  in  other  parts  of  the 
same  island,  indicate  that,  within  comparatively  recent 
periods,  they  have  been  little  better;  while  what  England 
has  been  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that,  in  an  old- 
farmed  district  in  Northumberland,  I  have  myself  known 
of  six  hundred  cart-loads  of  trap  boulders  being  raised 
and  carried  out  of  a  single  field.  I  am  less  inclined, 
therefore,  than  some  may  be  to  bewail  as  hopeless  the 
apparently  unimproveable  condition  even  of  the  stonier 
parts  of  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick.  The  progress 
of  agriculture  in  such  districts  is  necessarily  slow,  but 
a  thousand  years  will  do  for  these  countries  infinitely 
more  than  it  has  done  for  us.  Productive  fields  and  farms 
have  indeed  already  risen  in  many  places  from  among 
the  rocks  and  stones  around  the  city  of  Halifax.  The 
market  it  affords  for  produce,  and  the  wealth  from  time 
to  time  accumulated  by  its  merchants,  have  had  their 
efi'ect  upon  the  surface;  and  gardens  and  fields  and  small 
fanus  have  gradually  spread  their  cheerful  surfaces  along 
the  hilly  slopes  which  skirt  the  beautiful  bay.  But  where 
and  while  such  etony  tracts  occur,  arable  farming  on  a 
large  scale  can  never  be  carried  on.  It  is  not  in  this 
neighbourhood,  therefore,  that  the  agricultural  emigrant 
is  to  look  for  those  rural  attractions  which  are  to  dispose 
him  to  settle  in  Nova  Scotia. 

One  would  scarcely  expect  that  much  should  ever  have 
been  done  in  such  a  locality  for  the  general  promotion 
of  North  American  agriculture.  And  yet  I  was  much 
interested  to  meet  with  a  work  published  at  Halifax  in 
1822,  under  the  title  of  Letters  of  Agricola^  by  John 
Young,  Esq. — the  father,  I  believe,  of  the  present  Attor- 
ney-General of  the  province — which,  for  sound  knowledge 
of  the  subject,  both  practical  and  scientific,  for  honest 
common  sense,  and  for  a  warm  but  prudent  ?:eal  to 
improve  the  country  in  which  he  lived,  is,  as  a  whole, 
superior  to  any  other  book  of  the  time  I  have  hitherto 


LETTERS  OF  AGRICOLA. 


18 


f  the 

ecent 

gland 

1  old- 

tnown 

raised 

cVmed, 

3SS  the 

stonier 

rogress 

)W,  but 

ifinitely 

id  farms 

among 
X.    The 
:om  time 
lad  their 
md  small 
,ces  along 
Jut  where 
ung  on  a 
lot  in  this 

emigrant 
|to  dispose 

ever  have 
[promotion 
iwas  much 
|Halifax  in 
by  John 
^ent  Attor- 
[knowledge 
for  honest 
[nt  7.eal  to 
LS  a  whole, 
[ve  hitherto 


met  with  in  any  language.  It  was  not  to  be  wondered 
at  that,  through  the  exertions  of  Mr  Young,  a  provincial 
Board  of  Agriculture  should  have  been  established,  and 
many  county  agricultural  societies,  which  still  exist, 
though  less  patriotically  urged  forward,  perhaps,  than  in 
bis  time. 

The  publication  of  the  Letters  of  Agricola  marks 
an  era  in  the  agricultural  history  of  the  province ;  the 
writings  of  the  author  of  Sam  Slick  an  era,  not  only 
in  its  social  history,  but  in  that  of  the  steam  traffic  and 
intercourse  of  the  world.  Both  writers  must  rank 
among  the  truest  patriots  of  Nova  Scotia.  Is  there  none 
in  the  province  now  who  can  take  up  the  mantle  of 
Young  again,  and  re-awaken,  in  behalf  of  agriculture, 
the  spirit  which,  .thirty  years  ago,  when  less  was  known 
of  its  principles,  he  was  so  successful  in  creating  ? 

If  we  are  permitted  to  draw  any  conclusion  from  the 
increase  of  population  in  Nova  Scotia,  this  province  would 
appear  to  have  advanced  as  rapidly  as  almost  any  other 
part  of  North  America.  The  number  of  its  inhabitants, 
at  different  periods,  is  stated  to  have  been — 


In  1772, 

18,300 

In  1826, 

• 

130,000 

...1781, 

12,000 

...1846, 

, 

280,000 

...  1784, 

32,000 

...  1850, 

. 

300,000 

The  province  has  many  resources  in  fishing,  mining, 
and  agriculture,  and  cannot  be  prevented  from  increasing, 
both  in  population  and  in  wealth.  But  its  progress  will  be 
more  rapid  in  proportion  to  the  wisdom,  energy,  and 
singleness  of  purpose  of  those  whom  the  colonists — to 
whom  all  public  officers  are  now  responsible — may  select 
to  manage  the'i'  affairs. 

It  possesses  an  area  of  nine  and  a  half  millions  of  acres, 
of  \v  hich  five  and  a  quarter  millions  are  granted  to  private 
parties,  and  four  and  a  quarter  still  remain  in  the  hands 
of  the  provincial  Government.    It  does  not  grow  corn 


14 


FOOD  PRODUCE  OP  THE  PROVINCE. 


enough  for  its  own  consumption ;  but  Dr  Gesner  states, 
that  not  a  fiftieth  part  of  the  surface  is  cleared  of  timber, 
and  that  not  a  hundredth  part  is  in  cultivation.* 

Now,  one  hundredth  part  of  the  whole  area  is  about 
95,000  acres ;  and  supposing  this  to  produce,  at  the  same 
rate  as  the  cultivated  land  of  Great  Britain — of  which 
each  170  acxs  supports  100  inhabitants — they  would 
raise  food  for  libout  60,000  inhabitants.  But  the  surface 
of  Nova  Scotia  is  not  so  well  cultivated  or  so  productive, 
as  a  whole,  as  Great  Britain.  Its  95,000  cultivated  acres, 
therefore,  do  not  support  so  many  as  60,000  of  its  people. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  certain,  from  the  quantity  of  food 
actually  imported,  that  more  than  60,000,  or  one-fifth  of 
the  population,  must  be  maintained  by  what  the  province 
itself  produces.  I  conclude,  therefore,  that  Dr  Gesner''8 
estimate  of  the  proportion  of  the  province  which  has 
already  been  brought  into  cultivation  is  largely  understated. 

Again,  according  to  the  estimate  of  Dr  Gesner,  not 
more  than  one-half  of  the  population  is  employed  in 
agriculture,  the  rest  being  engaged  in  lumbering,  fish- 
ing, &c.t  That  is,  each  person  employed  in  agricul- 
ture raises  less  food  than  is  necessary  to  support  two 
people — since  there  is  a  large  importation  of  American 
flour.  But,  in  England  and  Scotland,  only  one-fourth 
of  the  population  is  engaged  in,  or  dependent  upon, 
agricultural  employment ;  that  is,  each  person  occupied 
in  tilling  the  land  raises  food  for  four  people.  Hence 
Nova  Scotia  is  not  made  to  yield  half  so  much  food  as 
Great  Britain,  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  people 
employed  in  agriculture,  if  Dr  Gesner  is  nearly  right  as 
to  the  number  so  employed  in  Nova  Scotia. 

I  think  he  can  scarcely  be  under  the  truth  in  estimating 
the  agricultural  population  at  one  half  of  the  whole.  We 
are  compelled,  therefore,  to  conclude,  either  that  the  land 
in  general  is  not  grateful  for  the  labour  expended  upon 

*  Industrial  Economy  of  Nova  Scotia,  p.  23.  t  Ibid.,  p.  24. 


INNER  HARBOUR  OP  HALIFAX. 


4ft 


it,  or  that  the  inhabitants  are  deficient  in  industry;  or 
that,  from  want  of  agricultural  skill,  their  labour  is  not 
turned  to  the  best  account,  and  the  capabilities  of  their 
soil  not  fully  brought  out. 

From  my  brief  stay  in  the  province,  and  the  peculiar 
aridity  of  the  season,  I  had  not  an  opportunity  of  deter- 
mining these  points  by  my  own  observation ;  but,  from 
all  I  have  learned,  I  am  inclined  to  attribute  much  of  the 
comparative  deficiency  of  produce  in  the  province  to  a 
want  either  of  skill  or  of  persevering  industry  on  the 
part  of  the  cultivators. 

On  the  morning  of  Thursday  the  9th  of  August  I  left 
Halifax,  by  stage,  for  Windsor,  whence  the  steamboat 
proceeds  across  the  Bay  of  Minas  and  the  Bay  of  Fundy, 
to  St  John  in  New  Brunswick.  The  morning  was 
fine,  and  the  ride  up  the  west  side  of  the  bay  very 
delightful.  The  harbour  of  Halifax  consists  of  an 
outer  and  an  inner  bay,  both  of  great  extent.  The  inner 
bay,  which  is  completely  land-locked,  is  as  yet  little 
frequented,  even  by  boats ;  and  one  laments  to  see  so 
many  fine  sites  for  houses  and  clearings,  on  both  shores, 
unoccupied  and  almost  desolate.  The  land  in  general  is 
poor  and  stony,  and  wealth  has  not  yet  so  largely  accu- 
\  mulated  at  Halifax  as  to  give  a  value  to  the  compar- 
atively unproductive  margins  of  this  wide  inner  lake. 

A  ride  of  ten  miles  brought  us  to  Sackville,  at  the 

head  of  the  lake,  where  we  stopped  to  breakfast.    In 

passing  over  these  first  ten  miles  on  a  new  continent,  a 

native  of  Great  Britain  or  Ireland,  though  not  learned  in 

I  trees,  can  hardly  fail  to  be  struck  with  the  new  and 

Ivaried  general  outlines,  forms  of  leaf,  and  appearances  of 

[bark,  which  force  themselves  upon  his  attention.     The 

varieties  of  pines,  maples,  and  birches,  and  the  peculiar 

Foliage  of  the  native  oak  and  ash  trees,  give  much  novelty 

p  the  journey  along  the  borders  of  this  lake.  Little  spots 

)f  land  occurred  ale  ;ig  its  margin,  of  various  quality,  and 


r' 


I 


■ti 


v 


RAILWAY  FROM  HALIFAX  TO  WINDSOR. 


suited,  therefore,  to  the  growth  of  a  larger  number  of 
Bpecles  of  trees  than  are  usually  seen  over  much  greater 
distances  in  the  interior  of  the  country. 

Above  Sackville,  which  as  yet  is  little  more  than  an 
inn,  with  its  necessary  outbuildings— but  which  will,  no 
doubt,be  t^e  site  of  a  future  town — several  small  streams 
unite  in  a  main  valley,  and  empty  themselves  into  the 
head  of  the  lake.  Up  this  valley,  and  across  the  penin- 
sula, runs  the  road  to  Windsor  and  the  line  of  the  pro- 
jected railway  between  Halifax  and  that  town.  As  a 
means  of  facilitating  and  hastening  the  communication 
between  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick,  the  execution 
of  this  railway  would  be  of  great  benefit  to  both  pro- 
vinces. With  good  steamers  on  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  this 
short  line  would  reduce  the  distance  in  time  between 
Halifax  and  St  John  to  ten  or  twelve  hours,  and  would 
make  the  Cunard  steamers  greatly  more  useful  to  the 
province  of  New  Brunswick.  And  if,  as  is  likely  to  be 
the  case,  the  transport  of  merchandise  across  the  Atlantic 
by  steam  is  to  be  diminished  in  cost,  and  to  become  much 
more  common  and  extended,  this  railway  would  at  once 
promote  the  extension  of  such  a  traffic.  And  while  by  this 
traffic  the  steamers  themselves  would  be  aided,  the  com- 
merce of  New  Brunswick  would  obtain  the  advantage  of 
a  direct  and  easy  weekly  access  to  the  European  markets. 
Were  this  railway  constructed,  we  might  hope,  within  a 
brief  period,  to  see  merchant  steamers  plying  between 
Halifax  only  and  the  British  ports  on  the  Mersey,  the 
Clyde,  and  the  Bay  of  Galway,  laden  with  the  lighter 
articles  of  traffic  which  the  merchants  on  either  side  can 
mutually  interchange.  Thus,  not  only  would  the  settle- 
ment and  more  rapid  Improvement  of  the  part  of  Nova 
Scotia,  through  which  the  railway  is  to  run,  be  greatly 
promoted,  but  the  general  commerce  of  the  two  provinces 
also  increased,  and  the  extension  and  profit  of  Atlantic 
steam  communication  hastened  on. 


§w 

I 

IM 

me( 

M 

mg 

^ 

veel 

m 

A] 

M 

lunc 

m 

ray 

*M 

pan 

m 

If  a 

Wt 

um- 

m 

Bfer: 

■ 

VO 

DROUGHT  OP  THE  SEASON. 


17 


Poor  clay-slate  soils,  thin  and  cold,  with  occasional 
quartz  rock,  and  granite  in  mass  or  in  drifted  boulders, 
accompanied  us  beyond  the  summit  of  the  Ardoise  hills, 
I  which  form  the  water-shed  between  the  Atlantic  rivers 
and  those  which  empty  themselves  into  the  Bay  of  Minas. 
Pine  forests  mostly  usurped  the  surface,  though  here  and 
there,  on  the  margins  of  lakelets,  or  where  flatter  and  less 
[stony  tracts  occur,  labour  and  industry  had  overcome 
nature,  and  compelled  rich  herbage  and  moderate  corn  to 
spring  up  in  their  stead.     It  was  interesting  to  observe 
how  the  absence  of  human  labour  for  a  few  years  gave 
{again  uncontrolled  supremacy  to  the  natural  vegetation ; 
jan.i  pine  forests,  young,  but  flourishing  and  dense  as  ever, 
jirradually  covered  again  even  long-established  clearings. 
The  summer  and  autumn  of  1849  will  long  be  remem- 
Ibered  in  the  British  provinces  of  North  America,  as  well 
[as  in  the  north-eastern  States  of  the  Union,  for  its  exces- 
sive drought.  The  first  striking  effects  of  it  I  had  yet  seen 
jame  under  my  observation  to-day,  in  the  burnt  forest  we 
)ccasionally  passed  on  either  side  of  the  road,  and  in  the 
jlazing  trees  and  underwood,  which, in  a  few  places,  hem- 
led  us  in  on  both  sides,  and,  with  horses  less  accustomed 
Id  fire,  might  have  proved  a  source  of  danger.    It  was 
emarkable  to  see  how  much  the  soil,  and  the  seeds  it 
Contained,  seemed  to  have  been  quickened  by  the  passage 
)f  the  fire.     Ferns  and  fire-weeds  embraced  the  black- 
Bned  stumps  and  trunks  of  fallen  trees,  while  smoke  still 
lingered  around  them  ;  and  I  was  assured  that  a  couple  of 
reeks  was  often  sufficient  to  produce  such  effects. 

After  crossing  the  water-shed,  which  rises  about  seven 
^undred  feet  above  the  sea,  and  descending  about  half- 
ray  on  the  other  side  towards  Windsor,  we  left  the  stony, 
ranite,  and  metamorphic  slates,  and  entered  upon  soils 
||f  a  more  propitious  character,  derived  from  those  gyp- 
im-bearing  and  red  sandstone  rocks  which  have  been 
eferred  to  the  lower  part  of  the  Nova  Scotia  coal  for- 
VOL.  I.  B 


IS 


PACINa  HORSES  OP  CANADA. 


mation.  Tho  country  is  also  more  undulating,  better 
inhabited,  more  generally  cleared — bearing  corn  or  useful 
herbage — and  has  a  less  humid  and  changeful  climate 
than  the  Atlantic  slope  of  the  Ardoise  hills.  Here  I  first 
saw  a  field  of  growing  Indian  corn;  and,  as  we  stopped  to 
change  horses,  had  an  opportunity  of  walking  into  and 
examining  it.  But  !■  could  not  repress  a  feeling  of  melan- 
choly as  we  drove  along,  and  saw  vegetable  life  every- 
where suffering  from  the  excess  of  drought.  Herbage 
for  the  cattle  was  scarcely  to  be  obtained ;  the  grass  fields 
were  burned  up,  and  displayed  one  universal  brown. 
The  hay  crop  had  almost  entirely  failed,  and  how  to  obtain 
winter  food  for  the  stock  had  already  become  a  matter  of 
most  difficult  consideration.  The  reader  who  is  possessed 
of  an  agricultural  eye  will  judge  how  far  it  was  possible 
for  a  stranger  passing  through  it,  to  form,  under  such 
circumstances,  an  idea  of  the  agricultural  capabilities  of 
the  country.  I  afterwards  saw  much  of  the  same  effect 
of  drought  in  New  Brunswick  and  the  north-east- 
em  States  ;  and  I  was  informed  by  those  who  had 
known  the  province  for  forty  years,  that  nothing  equal 
to  the  drought  of  1849  had  been  experienced  in  their 
time. 

On  starting  with  our  new  team  of  horses,  my  attention 
was  arrested  by  the  peculiar  gait  of  the  ofiF  leader.  It 
slipped  and  waddled  along,  alternately  lifting  and  rest- 
ing upon  the  fore  and  hind  feet  of  the  same  side,  a  pace 
I  had  never  seen  before.  It  proved  to  be  a  Canadian 
horse,  trained,  as  they  frequently  are  in  that  province,  to 
this  peculiar  pace.  It  is  a  sort  of  shuffling,  awkward- 
looking  gait,  but  is  very  easy  for  riding.  It  is  said  that 
a  person  may  ride  a  whole  day  at  this  pace  without  any 
fatigue.  I  hoped  to  have  been  able  during  my  sub- 
sequent visit  to  Canada  to  make  a  trial  of  this  alleged 
easiness  to  the  rider,  but  the  opportunity  did  not  fall  in 
my  way.     Horses  so  trained  are  known  as  pacing  horses, 


HOW  TRAINED  IN  SARDIICU. 


ti 


and  the  practice  has  probably  been  introduced  by  the 
French  settlers. 

1  have  never  myself  seen  It  in  Frn  nee,  pnd  should 
suppose  it  to  be  an  uncommon  pace  evi  ii  there,  and  that 
it  has  most  likely  been  introduced  from  the  shores  of 
the  ]\Iedlterranean.  I  find  a  notice  of  it  in  a  work 
upon  Sardinia,  lately  published  by  Mr  Warre  Tyndale.* 
"  Much  attention,"  he  says,  "  is  paid  to  giving  the 
better  class  of  horse  a  peculiar  step  called  portante^  for 
j  which  we  have  neither  a  corresponding  word  or  pace, 
being  something  between  an  amble  and  a  trot,  and 
taught  in  the  following  manner  : — 

"  The  fore  and  hind  legs  are  attached  to  each  other  by 

two  cords,  supported  by  others  fastened  to  the  saddle  so 

as  to  prevent  their  dragging  on  the  ground ;  and,  thus 

:  fettered,  the  horse  is  put  in  action — the  trainer  pulling 

I  the  right  and  left  side  of  the  bit,  alternately,  and  giving 

1  a  corresponding  pressure  with  his  leg,  which  forces  the 

I  animal  to  move  either  the  two  off  or  the  two  near  legs 

[simultaneously,  producing  thereby  an  easy  glissade  step. 

7t  has  been  compared  to  the  Turkish  amble,  but,  judging 

from  personal  experience,  it  is  as  dissimilar  as  it  is  to  our 

cavalry  or  farmer's  trot.     The  movement  Is  delightfully 

jasy,  especially  easy  where  one  has  to  be  on  horseback 

for  many  consecutive  hours ;  and,  as  CettI  says,  '  II  viag- 

I  glare  In  Sardegna  e  perci6  la  piu  dolce  cosa  del  monde  : 

jrantipongo    all'  andare  in    barca  col  vento  In   poppa.' 

jThe  travelling  In  Sardinia  is,  on  this  account,  the  most 

[agreeable  thing  in  the  world :  I  prefer  it  to  going  in  a 

[boat  with  the  wind  astern." 

I  do  not  know  how  the  training  Is  effected  In  Canada, 
Ibut  It  is  very  interesting  to  find  this  pace  prevailing  In 
two  countries  so  remote  from  each  other.     May  It  not 
I  have  been  Introduced  into   Canada  by   some   of  the 


The  Island  of  Sardinia.    London,  Bentley,  1849,  vol.  i.  p.  200. 


20 


GYPSUM   COUNTRY  AND  QUARRIES. 


Romish  clergy  from  the  islands  or  borders  of  the  Medi- 
terranean ? 

Windsor,  which  we  reached  after  another  hour's  drive 
is  a  neat,  clean,  well-built  little  town,  standing  on  the 
estuary  of  the  Avon,  and  within  a  short  distance  of  the 
mouth  of  the  St  Croix  river.  Both  of  these  rivers 
empty  themselves  into  the  Bay  of  Minas,  and  are  dis- 
tinguished by  the  lofty  white  cliffs  of  gypsum  which  are 
seen  at  various  places  along  their  banks.  The  country 
adjoining  the  lower  part  of  both  rivers  is  in  many  places 
gypsiferous,  and  the  undulating  appearance  of  its  sur- 
face, the  rounded  hills,  and  the  sudden  hollows  which 
here  and  there  appear,  are  in  great  part  to  be  ascribed 
to  the  numerous  swallow  holes  and  sinkings  which  have 
been  produced  through  the  gradual  solution  and  removal, 
by  surface  water  or  by  springs,  of  the  gypsum  from 
beneath.  A  similar  surface  of  rounded  hills  and  hollows 
afterwards  attracted  my  attention  along  the  shores  of 
the  Cumberland  basin,  in  some  parts  of  New  Brunswick, 
and  on  the  gypsiferous  strata  along  the  out-crop  of  the 
upper  beds  of  the  Onondaga  salt  group,  and  the  base  of 
the  Helderberg  limestone  in  Western  New  York. 

After  a  hasty  dinner,  at  the  small  but  clean  town  of 
Windsor,  I  paid  a  hurried  visit  to  the  plaster  quarry  of 
Judge  Haliburton,  which  affords  the  principal  article 
of  export  from  the  river  Avon.  The  gypsum  occurred 
and  was  worked  very  much  as  our  limestones  are,  forming 
a  face  of  rock  in  which  different  layers  were  visible  of 
various  degrees  of  whiteness,  and  crystalline  structure. 
The  whitest  and  purest  is  quarried  and  conveyed,  by 
an  economical  railway  to  the  river,  where  it  is  shipped 
chiefly  for  the  United  States. 

At  Windsor,  it  is  usual  to  embark  in  the  steamer  for 
St  John  in  New  Brunswick.  In  favourable  weather 
this  is  a  run  of  twelve  or  fourteen  hours  with  the 
steamers  now  on  the  station.     That  I  might  see  a  por- 


WINDSOR  TO  WOLFVILLE. 


21 


tion  of  the  richest  land  in  the  province,  however,  I  had 
been  recommended  to  proceed  westward  to  Annapolis, 
about  eighty  miles  by  land,  and  thence  by  a  steamer 
which  plies  regularly  to  the  city  of  St  John. 

Starting  again  with  the  stage,  we  ascended  the  Avon 
till  it  became  sufficiently  narrow  to  be  bridged  over, 
and  then  crossed  to  Falmouth  by  one  of  those  covered 
wooden  bridges  of  which  I  afterwards  saw  so  many  in 
North  America.  They  form  long  dark  wooden  tunnels, 
stronger,  perhaps,  and  more  durable  for  their  darkness, 
but  most  effectual  in  preventing  either  the  beauties  or 
defects  of  the  river  scenery  from  reaching  the  eye  of  the 
passenger. 

Whoever  has  sailed  up  the  Avon  to  our  English  Bristol 
when  the  tide  was  low,  would,  this  afternoon,  have  agreed 
in  the  propriety  of  the  name  which  has  been  given  to 
this  river  of  Windsor.  The  tide  was  low,  and,  as  in  the 
English  Avon,  lofty  and  steep  mud  banks  confined  the 
waters,  and  showed  at  once  how  high  the  tide  must  rise, 
and  how  fertilising  its  muddy  water  must  be. 

From  this  point  the  land  had  an  improved  appear- 
ance, and  the  first  good  crop  I  had  seen  during  my 
whole  day's  ride  began  to  cheer  my  eyes.     As  we  drove 
along,  I  gradually  shook  off  the  feeling  of  despondency, 
with  which   I  had  looked  upon   the  parched   upland 
country  through  which  I  had  come  to  Windsor.     I  was 
now  proceeding  over  a  more  elevated  and  less  valuable 
portion  of  that  rich  alluvial  land,  for  which  the  shores  of 
the  Bay  of  Minas,  and  its  tributary  creeks,  and  of  the 
head- waters  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy  in  general,  have  been 
long  famous.     Advancing  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  further 
j  to  Horton  and  Wolfville,  I  found  myself  on  the  edge  of 
the  richest  dyke-land  in  the  province.     I  quitted  the 
^  stage  at  Wolfville,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  a  drive  over 
I  a  portion  of  the  most  productive  land  before  the  evening 
'-^  set  in. 


22 


ALLUVIAL  LANDS  OF  MINAS  BAY. 


Having  obtained  a  light  carriage,  and  an  intelligent 
guide,  I  drove  over  some  dozen  miles  of  what  is  certainly 
a  naturally  fertile,  and  was  then  a  comparatively  smiling, 
district.  But  even  at  this  low  level,  and  so  near  the 
waters  of  the  broad  bay,  the  drought  had  seared  and  yel- 
lowed the  usually  luxuriant  herbage ;  and  had  I  not  come 
from  a  far  more  arid  region,  it  would  have  conveyed  to  my 
mind  the  impression  that  the  agricultural  capabilities  of 
the  township  of  Cornwallis  had  been  much  over-estimated. 

These  dyked  alluvial  lands  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy 
are  to  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick  what  the  carses 
of  Gowrie  and  Falkirk  are  to  Scotland,  and  the  warped 
lands  of  Lincolnshire  to  Eastern  England.  The  thick 
waters  of  our  Humber  and  Trent  give  a  fair  idea  of 
those  of  the  Bay  of  Minas,  and  of  the  other  broad  creeks 
which  communicate  with  the  Bay  of  Fundy ;  only  the 
American  waters  are  scarcely  so  dark  in  colour,  and  the 
mud  they  deposit  is  of  a  redder  hue.  The  frequent 
villages,  and  the  numerous  scattered  habitations,  which 
are  visible  from  the  higher  ground  of  Cornwallis,  are 
abundant  proof  of  the  productiveness  of  the  soil  of  this 
more  favoured  part  of  Nova  Scotia.  It  is  not  all,  how- 
ever, of  equal  quality. 

Three  kinds  of  land  are  distinguished  in  this  and  the 
adjoining  province.  First^  dyke-land — the  rich  alluvial 
deposit  of  these  waters,  so  called  from  its  having  been 
laid  dry  by  a  succession  of  dykes,  which  for  the  last  two 
centuries  have  been  gradually  advancing  beyond  each 
other  towards  the  bay.  This  land  sells  at  present  at 
from  £15  to  £40  sterling  per  acre ;  and  some  of  it  has 
been  tilled  for  150  years  without  any  manure — a  treat- 
ment, however,  of  which  it  is  now  beginning  seriously 
to  complain.  It  averages  300  bushels  (9  tons,)  and 
sometimes  produces  600  bushels  (18  tons,)  of  potatoes  to 
the  acre.  Seco7id,  Intervale — the  generally  light  alluvial 
soil,  which  in  variable  width  fringes  the  banks  of  the 


VALLEY  OF  ANNAPOLIS. 


23 


diligent 
jrtainly 
smiling, 
ear  the 
md  yel- 
ot  come 
jd  to  my 
lities  of 
timated. 

Fundy 
le  carses 
5  warped 
he  thick 
:  idea  of 
id  creeks 
only  the 
',  and  the 

frequent 
ns,  which 

allis,  are 
)il  of  this 

all,  how- 

and  the 
h  alluvial 
ring  been 
last  two 
ond  each 
present  at 
of  it  has 
— a  treat- 
seriously 
tons,)  and 
potatoes  to 
it  alluvial 
iks  of  the 


rivers  above  the  head  of  the  tide-waters.  This  also 
varies  in  quality,  but  with  farm-buildings  is  rarely 
valued  so  high  as  £20  an  acre.  Third,  Upland  — 
elevated  above  both  rivers  and  tides,  and  which  owes 
nothing  to  either.  Over  a  large  portion  of  the  province, 
the  upland  is  said  to  be  comparatively  fertile,  and  free 
from  stones.  The  most  improved  of  this  kind  of  land, 
however,  with  farm-buildings  attached,  rarely  sells  so 
high  as  cdO  an  acre.  The  wild  or  wilderness  land  is 
granted  by  Government  at  about  3s.  6d.  an  acre. 

The  Baptists,  as  I  have  already  observed,  are  a  power- 
ful body  in  these  provinces.  At  Wolfville,  they  have  a 
college  or  academy,  attended  by  a  large  number  of  stu- 
dents. It  is  a  handsome  building,  situated  on  a  rising 
ground,  which  overlooks  the  rich  flats  beneath,  the 
Minas  basin  beyond,  and  carries  the  eye  over  to  the 
Cobequid  Mountains  on  the  other  side  of  the  sea.  Before 
reaching  Windsor,  we  passed,  at  a  short  distance  on  our 
left,  a  Church  of  England  college,  also  finely  situated, 
but  said  not  to  be  so  well  frequented,  or  in  so  flourishing 
a  condition,  as  its  friends  would  desire. 

By  starting  early  in  the  morning,  I  was  enabled  to 
[  advance  as  far  as  Kentville  before  the  departure  of  the 
stage,  and  to  proceed  along  the  valley  to  Annapolis,  a 
I  distance  of  nearly  seventy  miles.  The  road,  in  general 
good,  though  in  some  places  sandy,  runs  along  the  foot 
jof  what  are  culled  the  South  Mountains,  from  their  skirt- 
ling  this  long  valley  on  the  south.  It  rises  very  gently 
ind  very  slightly  till  it  reaches  an  Immense  bog — called 
In  these  provinces  a  Carrlboo  bog  or  Carrlboo  plain — 
Mdi  is  the  water-shed  from  which  flow  both  the  Corn- 
rallls  river  and  that  of  Annapolis,  in  opposite  directions ; 
lence  it  descends  as  gently  to  the  town  of  Annapolis. 

Along  the  lower  part  of  each  river  there  is  much  good 
md,  but  towards  the  middle  of  the  day's  journey,  espe- 
cially about  Aylesford  and  after  passing  the  bog,   it 


24 


AYLESFORD  SAND-PLAIN. 


becomes  sandy ;  and  there  is  here,  occupying  a  large 
breadth  of  the  valley,  an  extent  of  many  miles  of  light 
and  comparfitively  worthless  land.  On  this  poor  soil  I 
saw,  for  the  first  time,  the  sweet  fern,  Comptonia  asplem 
folia,  which  I  became  well  acquainted  with  in  my  after 
journeys  in  New  Brunswick.  It  rejoices  in  light,  sandy, 
almost  useless  soils,  of  which  I  know  scarcely  any  more 
sure  practical  indicator. 

The  "  Old  Judge  "  thus  describes  w^hat  he  calls  the 
great  Aylesford  sand-plain  : — 

"  The  great  Aylesford  sand-pl?in  folks  call  it,  in  a 
glnral  way,  the  Devil's  Goose  Pasture.  It  is  thirteen 
miles  long  and  seven  miles  wide ;  it  ain't  jest  drifting 
sand,  but  it's  all  but  that,  it's  so  barren.  It's  oneaven, 
or  wavy,  like  the  swell  of  the  sea  in  a  calm,  and  is  covered 
with  short,  thin,  dry,  coarse  grass,  and  dotted  here  and 
there  with  a  half-starved  birch  and  a  stunted  mis-shapen 
spruce.  Two  or  three  hollow  places  hold  water  all 
through  the  summer,  and  the  whole  plain  is  criss-crossed 
with  cart  or  horse  tracks  in  all  directions.  It  is  jest 
about  as  silent,  and  lonesome,  and  desolate  a  place  as  you 
would  wish  to  see.  Each  side  of  this  desert  are  some 
most  royal  farms — some  of  the  best,  perhaps,  in  the  pro- 
vince— containing  the  rich  lowlands  under  the  mountain ; 
but  the  plain  is  given  up  to  the  geese,  who  are  so  wretched 
poor  that  the  foxes  won't  eat  them,  they  hurt  their  teeth 
so  bad.  All  that  country  thereabouts,  as  I  have  heard 
tell  when  I  was  a  boy,  was  oncest  owned  by  the  lord, 
the  king,  and  the  devil.  The  glebe-lands  belonged  to 
to  the  first,  the  ungranted  wilderness-lands  to  the  second, 
and  the  sand-plain  fell  to  the  share  of  the  last,  (and  people 
do  say  ihe  old  gentleman  was  rather  done  in  the  divi- 
sion, but  that  is  neither  here  nor  there,)  and  so  it  is  called 
to  this  day  the  Devil's  Goose  Pasture."  * 


*  Tlie  Old  Judge,  vol.  ii.  p.  5. 


HOME  IN  THE  PROVINCES. 


25 


It  is  a  pleasant  thing  in  the  British  provinces  to  hear 
the  people  talic  of  England  and  Scotland  and  Ireland — 
of  the  Old  Country  generally — as  home  ;  and  it  is  plea- 
sant to  meet  so  many  persons  who,  though  long  settled, 
and  having  families  of  province-born  children,  were  them- 
selves born  at  home,  and  like  to  ask  of  places  they  knew 
in  their  youth  from  one  who  has  lately  seen  them,  and  to 
tell  how  tliey  have  struggled  and  fared  since  they  came 
to  the  New  World.  Those  persons  are  greatly  deceived 
who  think  that  less  labour,  and  less  patience  and  perse- 
verance, are  necessary  to  success  in  the  New  World  than 
in  our  part  at  least  of  the  Old.  The  chief  difference  is, 
that  there  is  room  enough  in  the  broad  lands  of  America 
for  the  full  employment  of  all,  and  that  the  diligent  man 
of  moderate  desires  is  sure  of  a  competency. 

Along  this  road  I  met  the  first  examples  of  these  old 

settlers,  and  I  was  especially  interested  by  the  larrative  of 

an  old  Aberdonian,  at  whose  house  we  stopped  to  refresh 

our  horses.    He  had  remained  fixed  where  he  first  settled, 

'and  the  determination  he  brought  with  him  from  his 

[native country  had  at  length  made  him  master  of  almost 

[everything  desirable  around  him. 

As  we  descended  towards  Annapolis,  the  land  and 
[country  improved,  and  the  last  fifteen  miles  were  beau- 
tiful in  scenery,  and  showed  extensive  fertile  flats  in  the 
bottom  of  the  valley.  Bridgetown,  ten  or  twelve  miles 
[above  Annapolis,  struck  me  forcibly  as  neat,  clean,  well 
[built,  and  apparently  prosperous.  It  depends  almost 
jBolely  upon  the  agriculture  of  the  neighbourhood. 

The  stnicture  of  the  narrow  valley  along  which  I  came 
to-day,  and  at  either  end  of  which,  but  especially  at  the 
eastern  end,  so  much  fertile  land  is  to  be  seen,  is  very 
jiraple,  but  very  interesting.  Two  ridges  of  elevated 
Jand,  called  respectively  the  North  and  South  Mountains, 
m  nearly  parallel  to  each  other  from  Windsor  to  beyond 
■AnnapoHs  and  Digby,  a  distance  of  upwards  of  a  hundred 


2d 


FORMATION   AND  FILLINQ   UP 


miles.  The  northern  ridge  consists  of  trap,  resting  upon 
a  red  sandstone,  and  forms  the  southern  boundary  of  the 
Bay  of  Fundy.  The  southern  ridge,  called  the  South 
Mountains,  consists  of  granite  and  of,  more  or  less,  meta- 
morphic  (Silurian  and  Cambrian)  slates.  The  surface  of 
the  former  has  been  crumbled  by  the  action  of  the  weather 
sufficiently  to  form  over  the  greater  part  of  the  North 
Mountains  a  considerable  depth  of  soil,  which,  like  that 
of  so  many  other  trap  rocks,  is  said  by  Dr  Gcsner  to  be 
rich  and  fertile.  The  granites  and  slates  of  the  South 
Mountains  have  in  general  been  slowly  acted  upon  by 
the  weather,  and  have  ujiwillingly  produced  poor  and 
scanty  soils. 

Between  these  ridges  runs  a  long  valley,  widening 
towards  the  Bay  of  Minas,  and  affording  at  that  extre- 
mity a  larger  expansion  for  the  fertile  alluvlals  of  Corn- 
wallis  and  Horton.  In  this  valley  lies,  or  formerly  lay, 
a  red  sandstone  deposit — that  which  still  dips  beneath  the 
trap  of  the  North  Mountains — resting  probably  on  some 
of  the  softer  slates  of  the  Silurian  age. 

In  the  drift  period,  when  the  whole  of  this  country  was 
submerged,  the  northern  current,  of  which  we  have  so 
many  traces  in  these  countries,  rushing  between  the  two 
lofty  ridges  of  hard  rock,  scooped  out  the  softer  and  less 
coherent  red  sandstones  and  marls  and  softer  slates,  and 
produced  the  existing  valley,  which,  like  the  Bay  of  Fundy 
— a  wider  and  longer  excavation — has  a  north-east  and 
south-westerly  course. 

And  now,  when  the  land  was  elevated  to  the  existing 
level,  the  tides  began  to  act  as  at  present  upon  the  Bay 
of  Fundy,  and  to  run  round  either  end  of  the  North 
Mountains,  which,  from  Cape  Blomedon  to  the  Digby 
Gut,  formed  a  long  narrow  island,  having  the  Bay  of 
Fundy  on  one  side  and  the  Strait  of  Annapolis  on  the 
other. 

But  the  natural  entrance  of  the  tide  into  the  strait 


OF  THE  VALLEY   OF  ANNAPOLIS. 


27 


between  the  two  ridges  was  through  the  Gut  of  Digby  or 
Annapolis — a  gut  or  opening  through  the  lower  end  of 
the  Nortii  JVlountains  into  the  Bay  of  Fundy — and  here 
it  would  therefore  enter  when  the  waters  reached  it  on 
their  way  up  the  Bay  of  Fundy.     But  through  this  nar- 
row gut  the  tide  could  not  advance  with  a  velocity  equal 
to  that  with  which  it  ascended  the  open  bay,  and  thus 
the  tidal  waters  would  round  Cape  Bloraedon  into  the 
Bay  of  ^linas,  and,  rushing  westward  towards  Cornwallis, 
!  would  meet  the  smaller  arm  of  the  tide  which  had  come 
i  through  the  gut  somewhere  in  the  strait.   Here  a  struggle 
would  ensue,  which  would  be  repeated  every  tide,  would 
[shift  its  locality  a  little  with  the  height  cf  the  tidal  waters, 
land  with  the  direction  of  the  wind,  but  the  effect  of  which 
iwould  be  to  sweep  into,  and  deposit  on  the  site  of  the 
struggle,  all  the  loose  materials  which  the  rains  and 
streams    brought  down  from  either    mountain-side,  or 

i^hich  the  tides  themselves  might  tear  from  them.     Thus 

growing  sandbank,  and  finally  a  bar,  would  be  estab- 
lished in  the  strait,  which  would  be  a  virtual  water-shed, 
leparating,  as  now,  the  tidal  waters  of  the  Bay  of  Anna- 
}olis  from  those  of  the  Bay  of  Minas.     On  either  side  of 

u's  dividing  line,  the  muddy  waters  of  each  bay  would 

)egin  to  deposit  the  rich  slime  which  has  consolidated  into 

Ihe  fertile  dyked  land.     And  as  the  tendency  always  is, 

rhere  such  deposits  take  place,  to  raise  the  land  highest 

^ear  the  water,  the  first  formed  dividing  bank  would 

jmain  at  a  lower  level  than  the  alluvial  soil  of  newer 

)rmation,  and  thus  a  lake  would  be  formed  upon  it,  to 

ry  up  sooner  or  .later  into  a  bog  or  marsh.  The  great 
larriboo  bog,  which  still  forms  the  water-shed  and  the 
Irigin  of  both  rivers,  stands  on  the  site  of  the  original 

link,  the  scene  of  the  once  daily  struggle  of  the  two 

bposing  tides. 

I  The  rest  is  easy.     The  deposits  from  the  muddy  water 

ive  gone  on  as  they  are  doing  now,  till  they  Lave  filled 


28 


FINE  FUTURE  OF   NOVA   SCOTIA. 


tlic  whole  of  the  space  which  the  valley  now  occupies. 
And  if  the  Annapolis  dyked  lands  are  less  rich  than  those 
of  Cornwallis,  it  Is  because  the  waters  of  the  Bay  of 
Fundy,  coming  in  from  the  Atlantic,  are  less  loaded  with 
enriching  matter  as  they  enter  the  Gut  of  Digby  than 
they  are  after  they  round  Cape  Blomedon  ;  and  because 
the  discharge  of  fresh  water  into  the  west  end  of  the 
valley  is  less,  and  the  streams  come  through  geological 
formations  that  yield  their  materials  less  largely  to  the 
waters  which  pass  over  them. 

Annapolis  is  a  quiet  clean  town,  with  considerable 
shipping  capabilities,  but  little  traffic.  The  drought,  the 
potato  failure,  and  other  causes,  had  made  the  farmers 
poor ;  the  home  trade  was  therefore  dull,  and  the  good 
people  of  Annapolis  in  consequence  discontented.  As  they 
CGuld  not  think  the  cause  of  their  interrupted  prosperity 
was  in  any  way  to  be  traced  to  themselves,  they  were 
inclined  to  believe,  with  the  Canadians,  that  it  must  be 
the  fault  of  the  Home  Government,  and  that  the  certain 
cure  was  to  shake  themselves  free  of  the  mother  countrv. 
I  had  not  had  much  time  to  become  initiated  in  local 
politics,  but  I  was  certainly  pleased  in  listening  to  some 
of  the  warmer  Annapolis  politicians,  to  find  them  so  very 
unsuccessful  In  making  for  this  province  anything  ap- 
proaching to  a  reasonable  grievance  against  the  Colonial 
Office.  I  pictured  to  myself  Upper  Canada  In  the  charac- 
ter of  one  London  jarvie  saying  to  Nova  Scotia  in  the 
guise  of  another,  "  What,  no  raw?  "  and  thus  exciting  the 
ambition  of  his  brother  chip  to  discover  or  establish  one. 
My  present  Impression  of  Nova  Scotia  is,  that  It  has  a 
fine  futiu'e  before  It.  The  friends  of  humanity  will  regret 
if  Its  local  rulers — Its  Inhabitants,  that  is — shall  suffer  mi- 
croscopic or  Imaginary  evils  to  retard  the  discovery  and  de- 
velopment of  its  many  natural  resources,  on  which  the  rapid 
and  sure  realisation  of  that  fine  future  so  much  depends. 

On  my  arrival  at  Annapolis,  I  found  that  the  steamer 


ICE-HOLES   IN  THE   NORTH   MOUNTAINS. 


29 


occupies, 
lan  those 
)  Bay  of 
ided  with 
^•by  than 
1  because 
id  of  the 
geological 
gly  to  the 

nsiderable 
ought,  the 
lie  farmers 
I  the  good 
d.  As  they 
prosperity 
they  were 
it  must  be 
the  certain 
er  country. 
;ed  in  local 
ng  to  some 
iem  so  very 
ly thing  ap- 
le  Colonial 
the  charac- 
cotia  in  the 
exciting  the 
tablish  one. 
lat  it  has  a 
will  regret 
ill  suffer  mi- 
very  and  de- 
ich  the  rapid 
depends, 
the  steamer 


to  St  John  did  not  sail  till  Monday  ;  so  that  I  had  two 
days  to  amuse  myself  in  this  neighbourhood.  Part  of 
one  of  these  I  spent  in  crossing  the  bay,  and  climbing 
the  Nortii  Mountains,  to  visit  a  spot  where  I  had  been 
told  that  ice  was  to  be  met  with  all  the  year  round.  The 
day  was  hot,  and  the  hill  steep,  and  when  we  were  fairly 
in  the  woods,  I  occasionally,  for  a  short  cut,  forsook  my 
guide  and  the  trail,  and  fell  among  windfalls,  so  that  I 
was  not  a  little  pleased  when  he  announced  our  arrival 
at  the  spot.  A  windfall,  in  the  English  sense,  usually 
means  a  bit  of  good  luck ;  but  when  an  Englishman  gets 
into  an  American  forest,  he  will  soon  unlearn  this  home 
sense  of  the  term,  and  come  to  class  it  among  unlucky 
events,  with  the  occurrence  of  an  alder  swamp  or  a  Car- 
riboo  bog. 

The  spot  we  had  come  to  was  a  kind  of  notch  in  the 
side  and  summit  of  the  mountain,  where  angular  frag- 
ments and  rocky  masses  of  trap  were  piled  one  upon 
another,  a  little  runner  flowing  down  the  centre  of  the 
notch.  The  whole  was  overgrown  with  mixed  timber, 
chiefly  hardwood,  the  roots  of  the  trees  fixing  themselves 
wherever  a  holding-place  among  the  stones  was  to  be 
found.  At  various  spots  a  freezing  cold  air  was  felt  to 
issue  from  among  the  stones  ;  and,  on  digging  under  the 
fallen  leaves  among  the  stony  crevices,  we  succeeded  in 
obtaining  some  lumps  of  ice,  which,  with  the  water  of 
I  the  brook  and  a  little  brandy — a  prohibited  drink  in  these 
[parts — formed  a  refreshing  beverage  after  our  fatiguing 
lascent.  This  locality  resembles  those  which  have  been 
lescribed  in  different  parts  of  Europe,  where  ice  occurs, 
even  in  hot  weather,  among  masses  of  collected  rocky 
ragments.  The  air  proceeds  most  probably  from  caverns 
In  the  mountain,  which  are  filled  with  ice  during  the 
'^ong  and  severe  winters  of  this  latitude,  and  are  rarely 
^melted  by  the  warm  air  that  enters  them  even  during  a 
■hot  and  protracted  summer. 


\ 


30 


ORES  AND   IRON-WORKS  ON   BEAR  RIVER. 


I  heard  many  complaints  of  the  excessive  drouj2^ht  in 
this  part  of  the  province.  Parties  who  are  badly  off  for 
hay  arc  in  the  habit,  in  ordinary  years,  of  sending  to 
those  who  have  hay  to  spare,  three  cattle  at  the  begin- 
ning of  winter,  to  receive  back  two  in  spring.  This  year 
five  were  already  spoken  of  to  get  back  three,  and  higher 
payments  might  become  necessary. 

The  Bay  of  Annapolis  is  about  twenty  miles  long,  and 
at  the  foot  of  it  stands  the  town  of  Digby.  Several 
rivers  flow  into  it  from  the  South  Mountains,  among 
which  the  Moose  river  is  distinguished  by  the  occurrence 
of  deposits  of  iron  ore  a  few  miles  above  its  mouth. 
Another  deposit  of  the  same  ore  occurs  on  the  Nictau 
river,  which  descends  from  the  same  mountains  into  the 
valley,  about  half-way  between  Cornwallis  and  Annapolis. 
Both  ores  are  very  rich,  and  that  of  Nictau  abounds  iu 
casts  of  Silurian  fossils. 

Some  years  ago  a  company  was  formed  for  the  purpose 
of  mining  and  smelting  these  ores ;  and  buildings  were 
erected  at  the  mouth  of  Bear  River,  where  the  manu- 
facture was  established  and  carried  on.  But  differences 
arose  among  the  partners,  and  the  works  were  stopped. 
The  site  of  the  works  is  ten  or  twelve  miles  below  Anna- 
polis ;  and  I  was  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  Dr  Leslie — 
a  Scotchman  possessed  of  the  perfervidum  ingenium  of 
his  country  both  in  heart  and  head — for  driving  me  to 
the  spot.  The  site  appeared  to  be  well  chosen,  especially 
for  convenience  of  shipment.  There  were  also  heaps  of 
ore,  and  many  tons  of  unfinished  blooms,  lying  in  the 
crumbling  buildings,  showing  how  summarily  operations 
had  been  stopped.  Ihe  furnaces  and  workshops  were 
already  falling  to  ruin,  for  want  of  that  stitch  in  time 
with  which  masons,  as  well  as  tailors,  can  keep  things  in 
repair  at  a  small  expense.  The  locality  is  admirably 
adapted  for  the  supply  of  iron  to  the  markets  of  the  two 
provinces,  and  of  the  Atlantic  States  ;  and  if  the  adjoining 


IIANDINESS  OF  THE   NOVA  SCOTIANS. 


31 


long,  and 
Several 
18,  among 
accurrence 
its  mouth, 
the  Nictau 
IS  into  the 
Annapolis, 
abounds  in 

the  purpose 
Idings  were 
the  manu- 
;  differences 
re  stopped, 
elow  Anna- 
Dr  Leslie— 
ingenium  of 
.ving  me  to 
^  especially 
so  heaps  of 
lying  in  the 
y  operations 
•kshops  were 
titch  in  time 
3ep  things  in 
is  admirably 
ts  of  the  two 
the  adjoining 


n 


forests  yield  fuel  abundantly,  and  at  a  cheap  rate,  a  pru- 
dently managed  manufactory  of  malleable  iron  ought 
here  to  succeed. 

I  could  not  help  sympathising  with  my  friend  the 
Doctor,  when  he  discoursed  of  the  extreme  healthiness 
of  the  Annapolis  district.  Though  he  is  the  only  medical 
man  for  sixteen  miles  one  way  and  fifteen  another,  a 
fortnight  will  often  elapse  without  a  single  summons. 
Were  it  not  that  the  population  increases,  and  that  bones 
break  sometimes,  medicine  and  surgery  might  be  banished 
the  country. 

The  Nova  Scotians  have  the  reputation  of  being  super- 
latively handy.     "  What  will  1  do  now  ?  "  issues  from 
the  mouth  of  a  despairing  Irishman  ;  but  with  the  emer- 
[gency  the  resource  not  only  springs  up  in  the  head,  but 
[actually  rushes  to  the  hands,  of  the  Nova  Scotian. 

A  farmer  on  the  South  Mountains  will  cut  down  lum- 
[bcr  on  his  farm,  and  will  convey  it  with  his  own  horses 
Ito  the  shores  of  the  bay.  With  or  without  the  aid  of  a 
;arpenter,  he  will  lay  down  the  lines  of  a  ship.  He  will 
mild  it  himself,  with  the  help  of  his  sons ;  he  will  even 
\o  the  smith's  work  with  his  own  hands.  He  will  mort- 
tage  his  farm  to  buy  the  materials,  and  will  rig  it  himself, 
[e  will  then  load  it  with  firewood  from  his  own  farm, 
id  himself  sail  the  ship  to  Boston,  and  sell  cargo  or 
lip,  or  both ;  or  he  will  take  a  freight  thence  to  the 
'^est  Indies,  if  he  can  get  it,  and  return  in  due  time  to 
ly  off  his  encumbrances — or  to  sell  his  farm,  if  he  have 
jen  unsuccessful,  and  begin  the  world  anew.  If  the 
)rld  were  really  to  make  up  its  mind  to  hang  those 
10  have  no  shifts,  a  vast  number  of  our  Irish  fellow- 
bjects  would  be  the  first  to  taste  the  cord.  The  last 
rvlvor  would  be  a  Nova  Scotian,  unless,  indeed,  it  were 
fate  to  be  strangled  by  my  friend  and  subsequent 
llow-traveller,  Mr  Brown  of  New  Brunswickj  of  whose 
^ftiness  I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  in  the  sequel. 


!l 


32 


rnOVINClALlSMS  OF  NOVA  SCOTIA. 


On  tlic  Sunday  I  attcndeJ  service  in  the  Episcopal 
church,  and  lieard  a  sermon  preached  with  a  nasal  twang 
so  perfect  that  I  guessed  the  preacher  must  be  a  Yankee. 
I  was  afterwards  mortified  to  learn  that  he  was  a  native 
of  St  John  in  New  Brunswick  ;  but  I  can  honestly  say 
for  New  England,  that  neither  in  the  pulpit  nor  out  of 
it  did  I  meet,  during  my  subsequent  stay  in  the  States, 
with  any  one  so  handy  at  speaking  through  his  nose  as 
this  unhappy  preacher  of  Annapolis.  i 

The  readers  of  Sam  Slick  naturally  expect  to  hear 
many  provincial  expressions  when  they  come  to  Nova 
Scotia.  I  was  on  the  look-ont  for  them  ;  but  whether  it 
was  that  I  did  not  fall  in  with  any  of  the  real  blue-noses, 
or  that  the  Queen's  English  is  really  better  used  than  I 
had  been  led  to  expect,  I  scarcely  heard  a  single  pecu- 
liarity of  expression  during  my  stay  in  the  province. 
Occasional  guessings  there  were  as  to  things  which  the 
guesser  knew  perfectly  well — as  when  a  man  guessed 
his  own  age  or  his  daughter's  to  be  so-and-so,  and 
the  not  unfrequent  use  of  "  admire  "  instead  of  "  wonder 
at ;"  but  what  are  these  compared  with  our  county  pro- 
vincialisms ? 

On  Monday  morning,  the  13th  of  August,  I  embarked 
in  the  steamer  for  St  Jolm  in  New  Brunswick.  The 
weather  was  fine  till  we  passed  through  the  Digby  Gut, 
and  were  fairly  into  the  Bay  of  Fundy.  A  cross  sea 
tossed  us  a  little  at  the  mouth  of  the  gut,  and  by-and- 
by  the  fogs,  and  finally  the  rains  and  gusts  of  this  bay, 
assailed  us.  The  steamer  was  a  poor  affair,  and  among 
other  freight  had  some  sheep  on  board,  for  which  the 
farmers  of  the  Cornwallis  and  Annapolis  districts  find  a 
ready  market  at  St  John.  The  breadth  of  the  passage 
is  about  forty-five  miles,  which  we  accomplished  by  four 
in  the  afternoon ;  when  I  landed  at  St  John,  and  took 
up  my  quarters  in  the  hotel. 


CHAPTER    11. 


Aroii  and  population  of  Now  Brunswick. — The  lumbcr-trado,  its  benefits 
and  evils.— It  retarded  and  discounted  farming.— Emigration  caused 
by  a  crisis  in  this  trade. — City  of  St  John. — Diminution  in  its  import 
trade  and  in  the  provincial  revenue. — Apprehensions  as  to  the  ability 
of  the  province  to  sustain  its  population. — lUver  St  John. — llich 
river  flats— Average  produce  of  Queen's  and  Sunbury  counties. — City 
of  Frcdcritton.  — Farm  on  the  St  John. — Intervale  land,  its  different 
qualities  and  values. — Emigiation  fever. — Indian  com  as  a  fodder 
crop  in  England. — Opinion  as  to  farming  with  paid  labour.— Wood- 
stock.—Quality  and  value  of  land  in  its  neighbourhood. — Exhausting 
odture  of  first  settlers.  —  Farming  on  Shares.  —  Charivari  of  the 
Mickeys  of  Woodstock. —  Farm  at  Jacksontowu.  —  Speculator  in 
land. — Iron  ore  and  iron  smelting. — Itinerant  lecturers. — Mouths  of 
the  Tobique  and  Aroostook  rivers. — Potato  breakfasts  and  meals 
in  connnon. — Sowing  of  winter  wheat  on  newly  cleared  land  only. — 
Rust  and  wheat  fly,  remedy  for.— Mellicete  Indians  on  the  Tobique. 
— Irihli  settlement  and  thriving  settlers.  —  Healthiness  of  the  pro- 
vince.— Grand  falls  and  town  of  Colebrook. 


Before  my  departure  from  England,  I  had  been  invited 
by  the  Governor  and  House  of  Assembly  of  New  Bruns- 
wick to  visit  that  province,  with  the  view  of  drawing  up 
a  report,  to  be  presented  to  his  Excellency  and  the  Legis- 
lature, in  reference  to  its  agricultural  capabilities.  I  had 
undertaken  this  task  without  very  clearly  understanding 
the  nature  of  the  duty,  or  of  the  country,  and  in  the  hope 
that  it  would  not  seriously  interfere  with  my  other  plans 
in  visiting  the  American  continent.  On  my  arrival,  how- 
ever, I  very  soon  found  that  the  extent  of  the  province. 
VOL.  I.  c 


84 


TKANSITION   STATE  OF  NEW   BRUNSWICK. 


and  the  slow  rate  of  travelling,  would  compel  me  to 
devote  some  months  longer  to  the  work  than  I  had 
originally  anticipated;  and,  in  order  to  complete  it,  I 
was  subsequently  compelled  to  delay,  to  a  future  oppor- 
tunity, my  intended  visit  to  the  more  southern  and 
westernly  portions  of  the  American  Union. 

The  commercial,  and  I  may  say  the  entire  internal 
and  social  condition  of  the  province  of  New  Brunswick, 
is  in  a  transition  state  ;  and  as  all  transitions  occasion  em- 
barrassment and  distress  more  or  less  general,  wherever 
tney  occur,  it  has  been  the  fate  of  this  province  to  suffer 
a  temporary  check  in  its  progress,  in  consequence  of  this 
transitionary  state  of  things. 

New  Brunswick  contains  an  area  of  eighteen  millions 
of  acres,  of  which  about  five  millions  are  at  present  unfit 
for  agricultural  purposes.  Its  population  is  estimated  at 
two  hundred  and  ten  thousand.  With  twice  the  geogra- 
phical extent  of  the  province  of  Nova  Scotia,  it  has  still 
a  population  about  one-third  less.  It  is  therefore  in  a 
considerable  less  advanced  condition  than  the  latter  pro- 
vince. Indeed,  it  was  not  till  1784  that  it  was  separated 
from  Nova  Scotia,  and  formed  into  a  distinct  government. 

The  earliest  inland  trade  of  these  northern  provinces 
was  confined  in  a  great  measure  to  the  purchase,  by  way 
of  barter,  of  the  furs  of  wild  animals  collected  by  the 
native  Indians  in  their  hunting  excursions.  Next,  and 
as  settlers  increased,  the  timber,  or  lumber  trade  as  it  i^ 
called,  sprang  up,  and  an  apparently  inexhaustible  article 
of  export  was  drawn  from  the  boundless  forests  which 
stretched  uninterruptedly  over  the  entire  surface  of  the 
province.  The  cutting  of  the  trees,  and  the  haulage  and 
floating  of  them  down  the  rivers,  gave  healthy  employ- 
ment to  many  men  ;  the  raising  food  for  these  men  called 
agricultural  industry  into  play;  the  export  of  the  timber 
employed  shipping,  and  afforded  the  means  of  paying 
for  the  British  manufactures  and  West  India  produce 


VICISSITUDES  IN  THE  LUMBER  TRADE. 


35 


imported  in  return ;  while  the  profits  of  the  merchants 
erected  towns  and  public  buildings,  improved  harbours 
and  intenial  communications,  tempted  foreign  capital  into 
the  province,  and  generally  sustained  and  carried  it  for- 
ward to  its  actual  condition. 

But,  like  other  branches  of  industry,  the  lumber  trade 
has  always  had  its  periods  of  activity  and  depression. 
When  the  demand  was  brisk  and  prices  good,  the  trade 
was  pushed  eagerly  forward;  lumberers  went  into  the 
woods  by  droves,  and  timber  was  shipped  to  England  in 
quantities  which  over-loaded  the  market.  Prices  in  con- 
sequence fell — those  who  were  obliged  to  realise  were 
compelled  to  sacrifice  capital  as  well  as  profit ;  and  thus 
mercantile  crises,  and  many  failures,  periodically  occurred 
among  the  colonial  mi  •  hants.  It  was  the  over-trading 
of  our  own  manufactui'ers  in  another  form.  The  mer- 
chants of  St  John  and  the  other  lumbering  ports  were 
subject  to  these  vicissitudes,  no:  from  any  interference 
of  home  regulations,  but  through  excessive  individual 
competition  among  themselves.  Still,  on  the  whole  the 
colonies  gained,  though  many  individuals  were  constantly 
suffering.  And  if  home  capital  was  lost  to  those  who 
embarked  it,  it  was  a  gain  to  the  colony,  inasmuch  as  it 
had  been  expended  in  paying  for  colonial  labour,  by 
which,  directly  or  indirectly,  colonial  land  had  been 
cleared  and  prepared  for  the  plough. 

But  such  an  export  trade  in  the  large  could  only  be 
temporary.  Land  cleared  of  timber  does  not  soon  cover 
itself  again  with  a  new  growth  of  merchantable  trees. 
Every  year  carried  the  scene  of  the  woodmen''s  labours 
farther  up  the  main  rivers,  and  into  more  remote  creeks 
and  tributaries,  adding  to  the  labour  of  procuring  and  to 
the  cost  of  the  logs  when  brought  to  the  place  of  ship- 
Iment.  Hence,  prices  must  rise  at  home,  or  profits  must 
decline  in  the  colony,  and  the  trade  gradually  lessen. 
All  these  had  already  taken  place  to  a  certain  extent, 


36 


LAVISH   CUTTING   OF  TIMBER. 


when  the  further  increase  of  home  prices  was  rendered 
almost  Impossible  by  the  equalisation  of  the  timber  duties. 
In  this  alteration  of  our  British  laws,  a  large  number  of 
those  engaged  in  the  timber  trade  have  been  inclined 
to  see  the  sole  cause  of  the  comparatively  unprosperous 
circumstances  in  which  they  have  recently  been  placed. 

In  so  far  as  I  have  myself  been  able  to  ascertain  the 
facts  of  the  case,  I  think,  with  many  patriotic  colonists, 
that  the  welfare  of  these  North  American  provinces 
would  on  the  whole,  and  in  the  long  run,  have  been  pro- 
moted by  a  less  lavish  cutting  and  exportation  of  the 
noble  ship-timber  which  their  woods  formerly  contained, 
and  which  has  already  become  so  scarce  and  dear.  Home 
bounties  have  tempted  them  to  cut  down  within  a  few 
years,  and  sell  at  a  comparatively  low  price,  what  might 
for  many  years  have  afforded  a  handsome  annual  revenue, 
as  well  as  an  inexhaustible  supply  of  material  for  the 
once  flourishing  colonial  dockyard. 

At  the  same  time,  it  is  useless  to  lament  over  past 
mismanagement.  It  is  easier  to  discern  evils  and  their 
causes,  after  they  have  occurred,  than  to  prevent  even 
their  recurrence.  The  cream  of  the  timber  trade 
being  fairly  skimmed  off,  the  question,  on  my  arrival 
in  the  colony,  had  assumed  the  matter-of-fact  form — 
"  How  are  we  colonists  in  future  to  make  our  butter '?  " 

It  was  an  acknowledged  evil  of  the  lumber  trade,  that, 
so  long  as  it  was  the  leading  industry  of  the  province  of 
New  Brunswick,  it  overshadowed  and  lowered  the  social 
condition  of  every  other.  The  lumberer,  fond  as  the 
Indian  of  the  free  air  and  untrammelled  life  of  the  woods,  j 
receiving  high  wages,  living  on  the  finest  flour,  and 
enjoying  long  seasons  of  holiday,  looked  down  upon  the 
slavish  agricultural  drudge  who  toiled  the  year  long  on 
his  few  acres  of  land,  with  little  beyond  his  comfortable  I 
maintenance  to  show  as  the  fruit  of  his  yearly  labour. 
The  young  and  adventurous  among  the  province-born 


■aMiawwiiT  iwtna-j 


CONDITION  OF  THE  LUMBERERS. 


37 


mon  were  tempted  into  what  was  considered  a  higher 
and  more  manly,  as  well  as  a  more  remunerative  line  of 
life;  many  of  the  hardiest  of  the  emigrants,  as  they 
arrived,  followed  their  example:  and  thus  not  only  was 
the  progress  of  farming  discouraged  and  retarded,  but  a 
belief  began  to  prevail  that  the  colony  was  unfitted  for 
agricultural  pursuits.  The  occasional  large  sums  of 
money  made  by  it  induced  also  vast  numbers  of  the 
farmers  themselves  to  engage  in  lumbering — as  a  lucky 
hit  in  a  mining  country  makes  many  miners — gradually 
to  involve  themselves  in  debts,  and  to  tie  up  their  farms 
by  mortgages  to  the  merchants  who  furnished  the  sup- 
plies which  their  life  in  the  woods  required.  Thus  not 
only  were  large  numbers  of  the  young  men  demoralised 
by  their  habits  in  the  woor^-  trained  to  extravagant 
habits,  and  rendered  unfit  for  -t  r  agricultural  labour, 
but  very  many  of  the  actual  o  •  •-  af  farms  had  become 
involved  in  overwhelming  pecuniary  difficulties,  when 
the  crisis  of  the  lumber  trade  arrived,  and  stopped  all 
further  credit. 

What  added  to  the  apprehension  of  the  colonists  at  this 
time  was  the  comparatively  extensive  emigration  which 
began  to  take  place  when  the  demand  for  timber  became 
less,  and,  consequently,  for  labourers  to  procure  it.  Un- 
disposed to  continuous  farm-work,  the  lumberer  left  the 
province — as  our  navigators  wander  from  country  to 
country — to  seek  employment  in  Maine  or  elsewhere 
towards  the  West,  where  their  peculiar  employment  was 
to  be  obtained.  Even  the  pine  forests  of  Georgia  were 
not  too  distant  for  their  love  of  free  adventure.  Unable 
to  shake  off  their  encumbrances  at  home,  many  of  the 
embarrassed  owners  of  farms  also  hastened  to  leave  them 
— some  in  the  hands  of  their  creditors,  without  even  the 
form  of  a  sale — and  made  for  the  new  states  of  the  West, 
under  the  idea  that  in  a  new  sphere  they  would  be  free 
men  again,  and  that  probably  a  less  degree  of  prudence 


38   EMIGRATION  AND  THE  FEAR  CAUSED  BY  IT. 

or  industry  might  there  secure  them  the  competence 
which  their  own  neighbourhood  had  denied  them.  No  love 
of  home,  or  attachment  to  the  paternal  acres,  restrained 
either  class  of  men ;  for  these  Old  World  feelings  or 
notions  have  scarcely  yet  found  a  place  among  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  of  any  part  of  North  Amefica. 

That  such  native-born  and  old  settlers  were  leaving  the 
province  in  considerable  numbers,  was  construed  into  an 
indication  that  the  province  was  inferior,  as  a  place  of 
residence,  to  the  states  and  provinces  to  which  they  emi- 
grated. Alarmists  made  it  a  topic  of  melancholy  lamenta- 
tion and  gloomy  forebodings  ;  and,  as  in  similar  cases  at 
home,  party  feelings  laid  hold  of  the  emigration  as  a 
demonstration  of  the  correctness  of  special  party  views, 
and  exaggerated  its  evil  effects.  The  departure  of  the 
working  lumberers  was  a  necessary  consequence  of  the 
cessation  of  their  favourite  employment ;  and  it  was  not 
considered  that  the  moral  character  and  habits  of  these 
men  as  a  body,  and  the  disheartened  and  embarrassed 
condition  of  the  owners  of  the  encumbered  farms,  ren- 
dered the  departure  of  neither  class  a  real  loss  to  the 
population  of  the  province ;  that  the  departure  of  both,  in 
fact,  was  necessary,  in  order  that  the  social  state  might 
have  a  fair  chance  of  returning  to  a  healthy,  cheerful, 
energetic,  and  prosperous  condition. 

But  if  lumber,  as  a  staple  export,  was  to  be  insufficient 
to  supply  the  future  wants  of  the  colony,  in  the  way  of 
paying  for  the  necessary  imports  of  West  India  produce 
and  of  flour,  upon  what  were  the  colonists  to  fall  back  ? 
Were  the  hitherto  undervalued  agricultural  resources  of 
the  colony  greater  than  they  had  been  supposed?  Could 
these  18,000,000  of  acres  really  be  made  to  support  a 
population  of  210,000  inhabitants,  and  thus  enable  them 
to  dispense  at  least  with  the  large  importation  of  bread 
stuffs  for  which  they  had  hitherto  been  yearly  indebted 
to  the  United  States,  to  Prince  Edward's  Island,  and  to 


■iij>ai>iiii  ■iiik*ww*-**'»*'=aw 


CITY  OF  ST  JOHN. 


39 


Canada?  Or  were  the  mines  of  the  country  of  such  value 
as  to  make  up  for  the  failure  both  of  lumber  and  of  com, 
and  to  enable  New  Brunswick  to  keep  pace  in  future 
progress  with  the  adjoining  states  and  provinces  ? 

Such  were  the  ideas  and  questions  which  had  been 
passing  through  men's  minds  when  I  was  honoured  with 
the  request  to  visit  the  colony,  and  give  an  opinion  upon 
its  agricultural  capabilities.  I  trust  that  the  result  of  my 
tour  has  been  to  inspire  new  hopes  and  awaken  new  con- 
fidence in  the  food-producing  and  population-sustaining 
powers  of  the  land  of  this  valuable  colony,  though  it  has 
lessened  very  much  in  my  mind  the  opinion  I  had  pre- 
viously derived  from  books  as  to  the  extent  of  its 
mineral  resources. 

The  city  of  St  John  is  situated  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river  of  the  same  name,  which  falls  into  the  Bay  of  Fundy. 
It  has  a  safe,  though  not  extensive  harbour,  the  entrance 
of  which  is  defended  by  Partridge  and  other  small 
islands.  The  principal  part  of  the  town  is  situated  upon 
a  rocky  peninsula,  which  stretches  into  the  harbour,  but 
it  is  now  extending  itself  in  various  directions  over  the 
adjoining  crags  and  hollows.  Notwithstanding  the  de- 
pression of  trade  which  had  for  some  time  prevailed,  the 
surface  of  naked  rocks  was,  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  selling 
at  the  rate  of  £100  an  acre  for  building  purposes ;  and 
tasteful  cottages,  on  picturesque  sites,  were  springing  up 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  city.  The  older  inhabitants 
of  the  city,  the  descendants  of  American  loyalists,  have 
many  interesting  facts  to  relate  regarding  its  growth, 
upon  what,  sixty  years  ago,  was  a  rocky  headland, 
skirted  by  cedar  swamps ;  and,  considering  the  still 
generally  uncleared  condition  of  the  province,  and  the 
position  of  the  city  itself,  its  progress  has  been  at  least  as 
rapid  as  that  of  any  of  the  greater  cities  on  the  Atlantic 
border  of  the  North  American  continent. 

Yet  that  there  has  been  a  serious  change  for  the  worse 


40 


FALLING -OFF  IN  ITS  TRADE. 


in  the  trade  of  this  part  of  the  province  is  shown  by  the 
official  returns  of  exports  and  imports  from  the  port  of 
St  John,  for  the  three  years  ending  in  December  1848. 
These  are  as  follows : — 

Diminution 
1846.  1847.  1848.  in  1848. 

Imports,  .  ^£977,683  ^1,070,614  i588,422  £482,092 
Exports,         .         810,742  632,612       588,466  44,146 

Thus  the  exports  have  been  regularly  diminishing 
during  these  years,  and  consequently,  though  not  imme- 
diately, the  imports  also.  And,  as  affecting  the  trade 
with  the  mother  country,  it  is  an  important  fact  that,  of 
the  total  decrease  in  1848,  compared  with  1847,  no  less 
than  £336,100  were  in  the  imports  from  Great  Britain. 
Of  this  sum  the  diminution  in  the  importation  of — 

Manufactures  of  cotton,  woollen,  linen,  and  silk,  was  £157,421 

Iron,  wrought  and  unwrought,       ....  46,267 

Copper, 9,319 

Hardware,            22,961 

Leather  manufactures,            .....  1,923 

Cordage,  twine,  and  canvass,            ....  47,044 

Tea, 6,975 

Thus,  all  our  home  industrial  interests  are  concerned 
in  the  prosperity  of  our  colonial  possessions,  and  we  help 
our  own  pockets  when  we  contribute  to  their  material 
advancement. 

Another  way  in  which  this  falling  off  in  the  exports 
and  imports  of  St  John  had  affected,  not  only  the  city, 
but  the  province  in  general,  and  had  made  people  fretful 
and  uneasy,  besides  embarrassing  the  Government,  was 
the  great  reduction  it  caused  in  the  revenue,  a  large  por- 
tion of  which  is  derived  from  the  duties  levied  at  the 
custom-houses,  and  from  a  small  export-duty  on  timber. 
Thus,  in  the  three  years  I  hdve  mentioned — 

1846. 

The  total  revenue  was      .       £127,336 
The  revenue  from  customs,  30,961 

The  export-duty  on  timber,        22,664 


1847. 

1848. 

£127,410 

£86,437 

31,912 

2,711 

16,553 

18,252 

UNEASINESS  IN  NEW  BRUNSWICK. 


It  was  natural,  therefore,  that  all  parties  should  feel 
uneasy  at  such  a  state  of  things — a  falling  off  in  the  reve- 
nue of  nearly  one-third — and  I  was  not  surprised  to  hear 
charges  of  the  gravest  nature  occasionally  made  against 
the  competency,  and  even  the  honesty,  of  the  existing 
provincial  Government ;  or  the  Canadian  grumblings 
re-echoed,  that  connection  with  England,  after  all,  was 
the  main  source  of  colonial  sufferings.  It  is  human 
nature,  and  especially  the  nature  of  political  parties,  to 
ascribe  to  neglect  or  unskilfulness  on  the  part  of  man 
what  physical  or  moral  laws  render  it  impossible  to 
prevent. 

I  shall  have  occasion  hereafter  to  speak  of  the  exten- 
I  sive  diminution  of  the  wheat  crops  in  North  America ; 
but  I  may  here  merely  mention,  in  connection  with  the 
other  causes  of  colonial  depression,  that  the  united  fail- 
ures, for  a  succession  of  years,  of  the  wheat  and  potato 
crops  were  further  just  causes  of  disquietude  to  the  pro- 
jvincial  population.     It  must  have  alarmed  those  who 
[were  not  themselves  possessed  of  agricultural  skill,  or 
[who  had  not  had  an  opportunity  of  looking  at  the  whole 
[province  with  an  agricultural  eye,  to  learn  from  the 
published  returns  that,  in  1847,  wheat  and  flour,  to  the 
I  amount  of  about  240,000  bushels,  were  imported  into 
iNew  Brunswick,  and  that  the  estimated  value  of  all  the 
[bread  stuffs  imported  during  that  year  was  £280,000 
[currency. 

Beckoning  all  the  grain  imported  at  the  average  high 
price  of  40s.  a  quarter,  this  sum  would  imply,  that  at 
least  140,000  quarters  of  grain,  or  their  equivalent  in 
lour,  were  imported  in  1847 — a  quantity  sufficient  to  feed 
It  least  one-half  of  the  whole  population  of  the  province, 
[t  was  natural,  therefore,  to  say — if  the  lumber-trade 
Fail,  and  we  can  raise  at  home  only  enough  of  food  to 
Bupport  one-half  of  our  population,  where  are  the  means 
\o  be  obtained  by  which  the  other  half  is  to  be  kept 


42 


THE   RIVER  ST  JOHN. 


'A  i 


$\ 


alive?  In  such  circumstances  of  doubtful  anxiety,  the 
political  condition  of  the  province  must,  on  the  whole, 
have  been  satisfactory  to  have  given  rise  to  the  very 
small  measure  of  excitement  which  it  was  my  fortune  to 
meet  with  during  nearly  four  months  that  I  spent  in  the 
province. 

The  river  St  John  empties  itself  into  the  harbour 
through  a  nan*ow  passage  bet\^'een  high  opposing  cliffs 
of  metamorphic-slate  and  limestone  rocks.  At  low  tide, 
a  long  rapid  and  a  considerable  fall  exists  at  the  mouth 
of  the  river ;  but  the  tide  rises  twenty-six  feet,  which  is 
sufficient  to  equalise  the  level  of  the  outer  and  inner 
waters,  so  as,  for  a  brief  space  before  and  after  high  water, 
to  allow  vessels  of  considerable  tonnage  to  ascend  and 
descend  with  safety.  Well-appointed  steamers  ply  upon 
the  river  between  St  John  and  Fredericton,  the  seat  of  | 
Government — a  distance  by  land  of  sixty-five  miles,  and 
by  water,  I  believe,  of  about  ninety.  In  spring  and  | 
autumn,  when  the  water  is  deep,  they  ascend  to  Wood- 
stock, which  is  sixty-two  miles  higher;  and  when  the 
contemplated  improvements  are  made  in  the  river,  small 
steamers  are  expected  to  mount  as  high  as  the  grand  falls, 
which  are  seventy-three  miles  above  Woodstock.  This 
extensive  natural  inland  navigation — nearly  equal  in 
length  to  that  possessed  by  the  state  of  New  York — will 
every  year  become  more  valuable  to  the  colony. 

14th  August. — At  one  P.M.  I  embarked  on  board  the 
steamer  for  Fredericton,  where  I  arrived  at  8^  P.M., 
being  at  the  rate  of  about  twelve  miles  an  hour.  The  j 
day  was  fine,  and  the  sail  very  beautiful.  For  the  first 
thirty  miles  the  river  is  wide,  and  has  rocky  banks  of 
varying  height  and  form,  covered  with  a  natural  forest 
growth,  except  where  the  hand  of  man  has  been  busy  in 
partially  clearing  and  establishing  farms.  The  rocks,  at 
the  outset,  consisted  of  mixed  limestone  and  slate,  then, 
for  a  considerable  distance,  of  trap  and  mctamorphic 


ASCENT  AND  SCENERY. 


48 


slates,  as  far  as  the  head  of  what  ia  called  the  Long 
Reach.  Tlien  tuniing  us  sharply  to  the  left,  and  nar- 
rowing the  river  for  a  few  miles,  a  ridge  of  granite, 
visible  only  on  one  side  of  the  stream,  succeeded  to  the 
trap ;  after  passing  which  we  emerged  into  an  open  and 
I  flatter  region,  over  which  grey  sandstones,  of  the  coal 
I  formation,  extended  and  accompanied  us  all  the  way  to 
I  Fredericton. 

The  trap  country  reminded  me  of  some  of  the  thinly- 

Ipeopled  districts  on  our  Highland  lakes.    It  was  covered 

jin  many  places  with  a  sandy  drift,  and  bore,  in  general, 

la  mixture  of  broad  and  narrow  leaved  trees.    On  the 

granite,  broad-leaved  or  hard  wood  prevailed,  the  poorest 

soils  bearing  only  the  white  birch.     Endless  pine  forests 

covered  the  sandstone  soils,  where  drift  from  other  for- 

uations,  or  the  sorting  action  of  flowing  water,  had  not 

lodified  their  natural  character. 

Through  the  first  twenty  miles  of  this  sandstone  forma- 
tion extends  a  very  beautiful  portion  of  the  river.    From 
pe  north-east  enters  the  Washademoak  River;  and  fifteen 
)r  twenty  miles  above  its  mouth,  the  Salmon  River,  after 
Iraversing  the  Grand  Lake,  escapes  into  the  St  John.  At 
jhe  mouths  of  both  these  rivers,  the  St  John  widens,  and 
studded  with  several  large  and  fertile  islands  ;  while 
the  low  intervale  land,  as  it  is  called,  stretches  some- 
jimes  a  cc-^ple  of  miles  from  its  banks.    Gagetown  and 
scovell's  Point,  on  its  opposite  shores,  are  centres  of 
rich  land,  which  appeared  to  be  tolerably  well  farmed. 
Many  emigrants,  with  money  to  purchase  farms  at  two 
four  pounds  an  acre,  might  settle  comfortably  here. 
Phis  alluvial  land  has  been  long  famed  for  its  grass  and 
Its  produce  of  hay.     In  this  country,  where   hay  has 
Jitherto  been  the  chief  reliance  for  the  winter  food  of 
tock,  the  produce  in  hay  is  generally  considered  a  test  of 
le  value  of  a  farm,  either  to  rent  or  to  buy.    In  renting 


ind, 


not  a  very  frequent  practice,  a  pound  of  rent  for 


I 


i\ 


44 


SOILS  AND  AVERAGE  PRODUCE. 


each  ton  of  natural  hay  produced  by  the  farm  is,  on  the 
St  John,  considered  a  fair  equivalent.  The  produce  in 
grain  is  not  taken  into  account.  Hay  sells,  according  to 
the  season  and  locality,  at  35s.  to  50s.  a  ton. 

These  low  lands  are  liable  to  be  flooded  when  the  ice 
melts  in  spring,  but  they  are,  nevertheless,  very  healthy. 
There  are  no  agues  in  the  country !  I  have  heard  of  none, 
indeed,  in  the  whole  province,  even  where  waters  and 
bogs  and  marshes  most  abounded.  These  spring  floods, 
no  doubt,  contributed  to  the  richness  of  the  land ;  but  the 
best  situated  or  most  esteemed  farms  here  are  those  which 
consist  partly  of  this  low  intervale  and  partly  of  upland. 

The  soils  in  general  are  light  and  loamy,  as  we  should 
expect  in  a  sandstone  country ;  and,  therefore,  adapted 
to  the  culture  of  Indian  corn,  which  in  this  part  of  the 
province  has  been  considerably  extended  during  the  last 
seven  years — I  suppose  since  the  wheat  crop  became  less 
certain.  From  the  mouth  of  the  Washademoak  river, 
in  ascending  to  within  a  dozen  miles  of  Fredericton,  the 
St  John  carries  us  through  the  centre  first  of  Queen's, 
and  afterwards  of  Sunbury  county.  Much  of  these 
counties  is  still  in  native  forest ;  but  the  general  produc- 
tiveness of  the  cultivated  land,  and  something  of  the 
husbandry  and  cultivation,  may  be  judged  of  from  the 
following  returns  as  to  the  maximum,  minimum,  and 
average  produce,  in  imperial  bushels,  of  the  crops  usually 
cultivated  in  these  two  counties. 


- 

Qitbbn's. 

SUNBURV. 

Max. 

Min. 

Average. 

Max. 

Min. 

Average. 

Wheat,      . 

Barley, 

Oats, 

Buckwheat, 

Maize, 

Potatoes,    . 

Turnips 

Hay, 

20 

18 

60 

60 

60 

400 

1000 

3  tons 

8 

18 

13 

16 

20 

100 

200 

1  ton 

14i 

18 

29 

27d 

'dU 

m' 

550 
1  ^  tons 

30 

40 

60 

60 

80 

400 

800 

3  tons 

20 

30 

20 

3.5 

100 

200 

1  ton 

30 
38A 
334 
61: 
204 
600 
1  ^  tons 
1 

BEAUTY  OF  PARTS  OF  THE  RIVER. 


46 


on  the 
luce  in 
ding  to 

the  ice 
lealthy. 
of  none, 
ers  and 
r  floods, 
but  the 
,e  which 
ipland. 
e  should 
adapted 
t  of  the 
the  last 
iame  less 
ak  river, 
cton,  the 
Queen's, 
of  these 
1  produc- 
of  the 
rom  the 
lum,  and 
)s  usually 


Average. 

30 

334 
5l| 
204 
500 
1  ^  tons 


The  produce  of  the  potato  in  this  table  is  small, 
because  of  the  failure  of  this  crop  during  the  last  few 
years.  The  turnip  culture  is  not  general  as  yet,  but  is 
extending.  The  intervales  of  Sunbury  county  are 
especicilly  productive  in  Indian  corn. 

I  have  seldom  seen  anything  of  its  kind,  which,  as  the 
sun  declined,  seemed  to  me  more  beautiful  than  the 
banks  of  the  St  John  in  this  county,  as  we  passed 
Majorville  and  Sheffield,  and  approached  the  mouth  of 
the  Oromucto  river.  The  river,  full  to  the  lip,  reflecting 
the  light  of  the  western  sun  towards  which  we  were 
steaming,  shaded  on  either  bank  by  rows  of  the  Ameri- 
can elm — which  I  here  saw  in  its  great  beauty  for  the 
first  time,  and  which,  every  time  I  have  since  seen  it 
growing  wild  in  its  favourite  localities,  has  always  struck 
me  as  the  loveliest  of  American  trees — and  beyond  the 
banks  broad  fields  of  Indian  corn  in  the  full  rich  green 
of  its  still  unripe  growth.  In  this  there  was  newness 
enough,  perhaps,  to  give  it  a  charm  to  my  eye,  which 
would  not  have  been  seen  by  one  more  familiar  with 
the  country ;  but,  after  making  a  large  deduction  for 
this,  there  remained  beauty  enough  over  to  make  this 
part  of  the  river,  at  this  season,  interesting  to  the  oldest 
dweller  in  the  province.  I  have  since  seen  no  river 
scenery  in  America  which  has  left  on  my  mind  a  livelier 
impression  than  this  part  of  my  voyage  on  the  St  John. 

Fredericton  is  the  seat  of  Government.  It  stands  on 
a  flat  of  level  intervale  land,  in  some  places  nearly  a 
mile  in  width,  and  raised  about  thirty  feet  above  the  river. 
Upon  this  level,  thirty  years  ago,  there  were  only  two  or 
three  houses,  surrounded  by  thickets  and  cedar  swamps. 
It  is  now  a  considerable  town  with  five  or  six  churches, 
besides  a  cathedral,  built  under  the  auspices  and  by  the 
exertions  of  the  present  bishop.  It  has  a  University, 
(King's  College,)  a  dissenting  academy,  a  grammar 
school,  normal  school,  court  houses.  Government  offices, 


46 


CITY   OP  FREDERICTON. 


■  \ 


I' 


Icgislativo  halls,  well-built  streets,  barracks  for  a  thou- 
sand men,  and  a  population  probably  of  four  or  five 
thousand  people.  The  soil  of  the  level  on  which  it 
stands  is  light  and  sandy,  resting  at  a  variable  depth  on 
a  bed  of  clay.  The  hill-slope  behind  is  in  general  very 
stony,  and  costly  to  reclaim,  and  is  covered  for  the 
most  part  with  the  native  forest  of  pine.  Opposite  the 
town  is  the  mouth  of  the  Nashwauk,  a  considerable 
stream,  which  here  falls  into  the  St  John;  and  a  little 
above  the  town  that  of  the  Nashwauksis,  or  little  Nash- 
wauk. The  former  is  navigable  for  some  distance  into 
the  interior. 

The  St  John  itself  is  here  confined  within  higher 
sloping  banks,  and  is  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
wide.  The  influence  of  the  tide  is  observed  about  four 
miles  above  the  town ;  and  at  Fredericton  it  seldom 
rises  more  than  fifteen  inches,  so  that  it  may  be  said  to 
be  situated  at  the  head  of  tide-water.  Steam  and  horse 
ferries  are  established  on  the  river,  by  which  a  regular 
communication  is  kept  up  with  the  opposite  shore. 

Kith  August. — At  Fredericton  I  was  joined  by  Mr 
James  Brown,  a  member  of  the  Provincial  Assembly, 
and  by  Dr  Kobb,  Professor  of  Natural  History  in  King's 
College,  who  accompanied  me  during  the  whole  of  my 
subsequent  tour  in  the  province,  and  to  both  of  whom  I 
was  indebted  for  much  information  and  assistance.  The 
familiarity  of  the  former  with  the  practical  agriculture 
and  economical  condition  of  the  province,  and  of  the 
latter  with  its  geology,  in  so  far  as  it  had  previously 
been  made  out,  enabled  me  to  arrive  much  more  rapidly 
at  satisfactory  conclusions,  in  regard  to  the  agricultural 
capabilities  of  the  province,  than  I  should  otherwise  have 
been  able  to  do. 

Early  this  morning  we  started  in  an  open  carriage  up 
the  right  bank  of  the  river,  and  stopped  to  breakfast  at 
Oakhill,  a  farm  lately  bought  by  Mr  Jardine,  a  merchant 


» I 


A   FARM  ON  THE  8T  JOHN. 


47 


of  St  John,  and  occupied  by  Mr  Gray,  a  Scottish 
farmer,  who  had  recently  quitted  the  neighbourhood  of 
Uirvnn  in  Ayrshire,  for  the  purpose  of  settling  in  New 
lirunawick.  We  found  him  busy  improving  and  cnlarg- 
iufr  liis  farm-buildings,  and  after  breakfast  we  walked 
over  hia  farm.  As  it  is  the  first  farm  I  examined  in 
the  province,  I  may  be  permitted  to  give  some  general 
description  of  it. 

It  consists  of  a  thousand  acres  in  all,  of  which  two 
hundred  arc  cleared,  and  eight  hundred  in  forest,  chiefly 
soft  (pine),  but  some  of  it  hardwood.  It  contains  land 
of  three  kinds.  First^  an  island  in  the  river  of  eighty 
acres,  to  which  I  crossed,  and  found  it  a  free  grey  loamy 
I  clay  full  of  natural  richness,  and  subject  to  be  overflowed 
only  twice  during  the  last  thirty  years.  Second^  inter- 
vale land,  generally  light  and  sandy,  but  bearing  in 
some  places  good  turnips,  and  resting  upon  a  loamy  clay 
resembling  that  of  the  island,  at  a  depth  in  some  places 
of  no  more  than  eighteen  inches  from  the  surface.  I  do 
not  know  the  extent  of  this  intervale,  on  which  the 
house  stands.  Third,  the  rest  is  upland,  on  the  slopes 
generally  very  stony,  but  in  other  parts  of  the  farm 
I  capable  of  being  easily  cleared.  But  two  hundred  acres 
of  cleared  land  form  a  large  farm  where  labour  is  scarce 
I  and  dear. 

Tills  farm  cost  about  two  thousand  pounds  currency 
[(£1600  sterling),  or  two  pounds  an  acre  over  head ;  and 
this  may  be  considered  about  the  present  price  of  such 
mixed  farms  on  the  upper  St  John.  It  had  been 
lexhausted  by  the  last  holder  by  a  system  of  selling  off 
jevery thing — hay,  corn,  potatoes — the  common  system, 
■in  fact,  of  North  America  of  selling  everything  for  whicii 
la  market  can  be  got;  and  taking  no  trouble  io  put 
janything  into  the  soil  in  return. 

Farming  on  shares,  the  Metayer  system,  is  practised 
in  the  Provinces  and  New  England  states,  more  than  our 


48 


LETTING  LAND  ON  SHARES. 


!■[ 


home  method  of  paying  rents.  In  this  way  a  man  who 
has  nothing  receives  a  farm,  with  stock,  implements,  and 
seed,  from  the  owner,  provides  all  the  lahour  or  works 
the  farm,  and  receives  half  the  produce  of  cheese,  stock, 
grain,  potatoes,  &c.  This  is  said  to  be,  in  general,  rather 
a  better  thing  for  tlie  cultivator  than  for  the  owner.  In 
most  cases,  however,  there  are  specialties  in  the  bar- 
gain, the  owner  receiving  more  or  less  according  to  the 
condition,  position,  or  richness  of  the  farm.  I  have 
already  spoken  of  the  system  of  reckoning  the  value  of 
land  for  renting  by  the  quantity  of  hay  it  will  produce. 

Leaving  Mr  Gray's,  we  continued  our  drive  up  the 
river.  Hitherto  we  had  been  upon  the  grey  sandstones, 
some  beds  of  which,  from  the  quantity  of  earthy  felspar 
cement  they  contain,  are  capable  of  yielding  soils  of  fair 
quality.  We  now  came  upon  the  slate  rocks,  and  upon 
these  we  continued,  with  the  intervention  of  a  narrow 
band  of  red  sandstone,  and  occasional  masses  of  trap, 
or  trap-like  metamorphic  slates,  for  upwards  of  twenty 
miles.  We  then  crossed  a  broad  zone  of  granite,  which, 
like  a  long  ribbon,  stretches  across  the  province  in  a 
north-east  and  south-west  direction,  from  the  Bay  de 
Chaleurs  down  to  this  part  of  the  River  St  John,  and 
hence  over  into  Maine. 

On  the  slates  good  land  often  occurs ;  but,  as  the  river  I 
banks  are  high,  a  journey  along  the  river  side  is  not 
favourable  to  an  estimate  of  the  quality  of  the  upland,  j 
The   granite  region,  and  much   of  the   slate   country 
adjoining  it,  are  thickly  strewed  with  stones ;  though  the 
soil  itself,  as  seen  among  the  stones,  or  where  the  stones 
are  removed,  is  very  good.     Rich  intervale  land  and 
occasional  islands  were  seen  along  the   river   and  the 
cleared  openings  we  passed.     The  frequent  boldness  and 
beauty  of  the  landscape,  the  varying  forms  and  freslil 
verdure  of  the  trees — elm,  butter-nut,  black-birch,  maple,! 
oak,  beech,  cypress,  and  numerous  pines — with  the  good 


VARIETIES  OF   INTERVALE  LAND. 


49 


roads  along  which  we  passed,  and  a  good  dinner  by  the 
wiy,  and  agreeable  companions,  full  of  information  new 
to  me,  made  the  day  glide  on  very  pleasantly,  till  we 
reached  the  mouth  of  Eel  River,  a  distance  of  fifty  miles 
from  Fredericton,  where  we  took  up  our  quarters  for  the 
night. 

Of  the  intervale  land  there  are  three  varieties  at  least 
along  the  river  St  John.  The  best  is  that  which  is  just 
above  the  present  high  water,  or  usual  flood  level,  of  the 
river.  It  is  generally  a  free  rich  loam,  easily  tilled,  and 
producing  large  returns  of  hay,  a  crop  here  so  highly 
valued.  The  next  is  a  ledge  from  eight  to  twenty  feet 
above  the  former,  which  is  usually  of  a  lighter  quality, 
and  less  valuable — sometimes  sandy,  gravelly,  and  almost 
worthless.  On  these  dry  worthless  sands,  and  as  a 
token  of  their  worthlessness,  springs  up  the  fragrant 
everlasting,  GnajjhaUum  polycephalum^  with  which  I  had 
the  opportunity  of  becoming  very  fiirailiar  before  I 
quitted  the  province  of  New  Brunswick. 

At  a  higher  level  still,  the  third  intervale  land  occurs ; 
and  besides  the  sand  and  gravel  of  which  it  not  unfre- 
quently  consists,  it  carries  stones  or  boulders,  occasionally 
in  considerable  numbers. 

These  different  intervales  are   in  reality  successive 

I  terraces,  rising  to  different  elevations  above  the  existing 

j  bed  of  the  river,  but  showing  the  different  heights  at 

[which  the  water  has  stood  since  the  stream  began  to  flow 

in  its  present  channel. 

I  have  alluded  in  the  commencement  of  this  Chapter  to 
[the  emigration  from  the  province,  which  to  some  had 
been  the  cause  of  much  anxiety.  I  heard  at  this  place 
I  of  the  first  striking  example  of  the  height  to  which  the 
emigration  fever  will  run.  About  eight  miles  from  the 
[mouth  of  the  Eel  river  lies  the  Howard  settlement, 
[situated  on  a  tract  of  good  second-rate  upland,  in  the 

VOL.  I.  D 


\ 


60 


FARM  FOR  SALE. 


#j! 


It 


township  of  Dumfries.  In  tuis  settlement  a  farm  is  at 
present  offered  for  sale,  consisting  of  200  acres,  of  which 
60  acres  are  cleared.  Four  acres  are  in  wheat,  2  in 
Indian  corn,  24  bushels  of  oats  have  been  sown,  1| 
of  buckwheat,  and  20  of  potatoes.  There  are  also 
four  cows,  two  oxen,  two  horses,  two  heifers,  fifteen 
sheep.  20  tons  of  hay,  with  a  house  20  feet  by  30,  and 
a  barn  30  feet  by  40.  The  whole  offered  for  £140 
currency  (£112  sterling.)  The  only  condition  is  that  of 
ready  money.  The  owner  is  said  to  be  mad  to  go  to 
Wisconsin.  It  ought  not  to  surprise  us  that  some  of 
those  who  have  shifted  once — breaking  loose  from  all  ties 
of  place  and  blood — should  after  a  time  have  another 
access  of  the  roving  fit,  and,  right  or  wrong,  insist  on 
moving  a  second  or  a  third  time.  Changing  their 
country  is  to  many  like  a  change  in  their  religion — they 
don't  know  when  or  where  they  ought  to  stop. 

17th  August. — This  m(srning,  the  rest  of  our  party 
proceeding  by  land,  Dr  Robb  and  myself  went  up  the 
river  in  a  canoe,  as  far  as  Woodstock,  that  we  might  see 
better  the  general  character  of  the  country  on  either  side 
of  the  river,  and  look  out  for  a  bed  of  rock-salt,  which  a 
sharp  New  Englander  alleged  to  exist  somewhere  by  the 
way.  As  to  the  latter  point,  as  the  river  runs  all  the 
way  through  old  slate  rocks,  our  exploration  was  of 
course  unsuccessful ;  but  we  found  a  beautiful  white  vein 
of  quartz,  which  looked  white  and  glistening  like  salt, 
and  had  most  probably  been  mistaken  for  it.  The 
shallowness  of  the  river  at  this  season  of  the  year  made 
the  pulling  and  polling  heavy,  so  that  we  spent  a  large 
portion  of  the  day  in  going  over  these  twelve  miles. 

A  few  miles  below  Woodstock  we  stopped  to  look  at  I 
a  farm  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  owned  and  occupied 
by  Mr  Hankin.     It  consists  of  about  1100  acres  of  inter- 1 
vale  and  upland,  of  which  100  were  in  crop,  meadow, , 
and  pasture,  chiefly  on  the  intervale  land.     It  is  an| 


I'MI  'I 


INDIAN  CORN   FOR  FODDER. 


61 


upper  intervale,  resting  on  accumulations  of  gravel  and 
sand,  and  therefore  for  the  most  part  light,  and  sometimes 
sandy.  Wheat,  oats,  Indian  corn,  and  potatoes,  are  the 
crops  raised — the  corn  more  largely  since  the  failure  of 
wheat  and  potatoes  commenced.  The  wheat  on  the 
ground  this  year  promises  25  bushels  an  acre,  potatoes 
yield  an  average  of  150  to  200  bushels.  The  Indian 
corn  always  ripens,  yields  about  50  bushels,  and  is  at 
present  the  most  profitable  crop. 

The  straw  of  the  Indian  corn  is  a  very  valuable 
fodder.  If  cut  before  it  is  dead  ripe,  it  is  as  valuable  as 
hay,  and  the  cattle  eat  it  as  readily.  Of  this  fact  I 
afterwards  met  with  many  corroborations,  though,  both 
in  the  Provinces  and  in  the  Northern  States,  the  waste- 
ful practice  of  leaving  the  straw  in  the  field  uncut 
extensively  prevails.  Besides  the  grain,  as  much  as 
three  tons  of  excellent  fodder  may  be  generally  reaped 
from  an  acre  of  Indian  corn  of  the  taller  varieties.  The 
advantage  of  this,  not  only  in  saving  food,  but  in  manu- 
facturing manure,  every  home  farmer  at  least  will 
understand. 

Indian  corn  has  at  various  times  been  recommended  as 
a  grain  crop  to  our  British  farmers.  But  our  summers 
are  not  dry  and  hot  enough  to  make  it  certain  as  a  grain 
crop.  It  is  worthy  of  a  trial,  however,  as  an  occasional 
i  fodder  or  green  crop  on  our  lighter  barley  soils.  A  well- 
I  manured  field  would  raise  a  large  crop  of  green  stalks, 
which  are  very  sweet,  and  it  might  be  profitable  either 
for  soiling  or  for  making  into  hay. 

The  stock  kept  by  Mr  Eankine  was  seventeen  milk 
jcows  and  thirteen  other  cattle,  which  consume  on  an 
average  about  60  tons  of  hay.  Butter  and  cheese  meet 
Iwith  a  ready  sale.  He  had  also  sixty-five  sheep,  which 
javerage,  including  lambs,  6^  lb.  of  wool.  This  his 
jf'amily  manufactures  into  excellent  homespun  checks  and 
jtiirtans,  which  are  sold  in  the  neighbourhood. 


ilH 


u 


i 


\ 


lli 

1: 


52 


PROFITS  OF  FARMING. 


I[ 


H 


•'« 


m 


m 


The  reader  will  naturally  inquire,  as  I  did — "  Here 
you  possess  a  farm  of  1100  acres,  and  you  have  only  100 
cleared,  and  of  this  100  only  50  in  arable  culture  ;  why 
don't  you  clear  more,  and  farm  more  extensively?" 
"  We  clean  up  two  or  three  acres  every  year  of  the 
lumbered  land  (land  from  which  the  timber  has  been 
cut,)  because  it  is  unsightly,  not  because  we  want  it — 
we  have  as  much  land  already  as  it  is  profitable  u 
cultivate." 

And  this  I  afterwards  found  to  be  a  very  prevailing 
opinion,  not  only  in  New  Brunswick  and  the  other 
Provinces,  but  in  the  United  States,  as  far  west  as  the 
foot  of  Lake  Erie,  the  limits  of  my  own  tour.  It  is 
profitable  to  farm  as  much  as  can  be  cultivated  with  the 
members  of  a  man's  own  family — it  is  not  profitable  to 
farm  with  paid  labour.  That  such  an  opinion  should  be 
so  widely  entertained  shows  that  it  is  the  result  of  a  very 
wide  experience.  At  the  same  time  it  may  only  be  true 
of  the  system  of  farming  hitherto  adopted  by  the  parties 
who  entertain  it,  or  inculcate  it  upon  others.  It  may 
not  be  true  of  another  or  more  improved  system. 

In  reference  to  the  agricultural  capabilities  and 
improvement  of  the  colony,  and  especially  in  reference 
to  the  question  of  its  being  desirable  as  a  settlement  for 
British  farmers  possessed  of  capital  and  skill,  this  ques- 
tion is  a  most  important  one.  I  shall  briefly  state  the 
general  result  of  my  inquiries  when  I  shall  have  gone 
over  a  larger  portion  of  the  province. 

Woodstock,  the  chief  town  in  the  county  of  Carlton,  is 
advantageously  situated  at  the  mouth  of  the  Medux- 
nakik,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  St  John.  It  has  four 
churches,  a  grammar  school,  and  about  3000  inhabitants. 
It  is  likely  to  flourish,  both  because  it  is  connected  with 
one  of  the  richest  agricultural  districts  in  the  province, 
and  because  here  the  road  to  Houlton  in  Maine  branches 
off",  and  it  ought  therefore  to  be  the  centre  of  the  traffic 


»fe- 


.,»diin.. 


COUNTRY   NEAR  WOODSTOCK. 


08 


with  the  upper  portion  of  that  state.  The  boundary  line 
between  Maine  and  New  Brunswick  runs  about  ten  miles 
west  of  Woodstock. 

From  the  mouth  of  Eel  River,  twelve  miles  below 
Woodstock,  where  we  left  the  granite  region,  the  soil 
has  gradually  improved ;  and  from  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  town  northwards  to  the  Grand  Falls,  and  on  both 
sides  of  the  St  John,  it  is  generally  equal  in  quality  to 
the  best  upland  in  New  Brunswick.  The  Cambrian 
appears  in  this  region  to  have  given  place  to  the  Silurian 
slates,  and  the  soil  resembles  in  some  degree  those  of  the 
upper  Silurian  slates,  which  I  afterwards  saw  in  the  wheat 
.:gion  of  western  New  York. 

The  president  of  the  county  Agricultural  Society  drove 
rae  a  few  miles  inland  to  what  is  called  Scotch  Corner,  in 
the  direction  of  the  Maine  boundary.  A  long,  flat,  second 
terrace,  or  intervale,  stretches  inland  about  a  mile  from 
Woodstock.  The  cleared  land  on  this  flat  is  valued  at 
£5  an  acre.  The  country  as  we  proceeded  was  beau- 
tifully undulated — chiefly  covered,  where  the  forest 
remained,  with  large  hardwood  trees.  The  rock  maple 
and  black  birch,  mixed  with  butter-nut  and  elm,  indicate 
good,  deep,  heavy  land — the  beech  a  heavier  soil. 

At  Scotch  Corner,  I  saw  a  fine  second  crop  of  potatoes, 
grown  without  manure ;  and  I  examined  a  field  of  oats, 
which  was  the  tenth  grain  crop  (oats,  pease,  and  buckwheat 
in  succession)  grown  on  it  without  manure.  The  soil 
consisted  of  fragments  of  a  shivery  slate,  which  crumbles 
readily,  and  which,  at  a  depth  of  sixteen  inches,  rests  on 
the  rotten  slate  rock. 

Old  Country  agriculturists,  or  those  who,  without  being 
farmers  themselves,  condemn  every  practice  which  differs 
from  what  they  have  been  in  the  habit  of  hearing  com- 
mended at  home,  cannot  fairly  appreciate  the  circum- 
stances of  the  occupier  of  new  land  in  a  country  like  this. 
For  ten  years — for  eight,  or  twelve,  or  twenty  years  in 


64 


EXHAUSTING  OF  NEW   LAND. 


\\m 


other  localities — this  new  land  requires  no  manure  to 
make  it  yield  good  crops.  On  the  contrary,  the  addition 
of  manure  makes  the  grain  or  grass  crops  at  first  so  rank 
that  they  fall  over,  or  lodge,  and  are  seriously  injured. 
Thus,  to  a  settler  on  new  land,  which  he  clears  from  the 
wilderness,  manure  is  not  only  unnecessary,  but  it  is  a 
nuisance ;  and  hence  he  not  only  neglects  the  preparation 
of  it,  but  is  anxious  to  rid  himself  in  the  easiest  way  of 
any  that  may  be  made  about  his  house  or  barns. 

Careless  and  improvident  farming  habits  were  no  doubt 
thus  introduced,  so  that,  when  at  last  the  land  became 
exhausted,  the  occupiers  were  ignorant  of  the  means  of 
renovating  it.  Old  habits  were  to  be  overcome,  new 
practices  to  be  adopted,  and  a  system  of  painstaking  and 
care  to  which  they  had  been  previously  unaccustomed. 
He  xe,no  doubt,  the  reason  why  I  was  almost  everywhere 
told  that  it  was  cheaper  and  more  profitable  to  clear  and 
crop  new  land,  than  to  renovate  the  old. 

Still,  because  of  these  future  evils,  we  are  not  justified 
in  speaking  contemptuously  of  present  holders  of  new 
land,  who,  being  desirous  of  making  the  most  of  it  with 
the  means  at  their  command,  waste  none  of  their  atten- 
tion upon  unnecessary  manures.  These  men  form  that 
body  of  pioneers  in  American  agriculture,  who,  having 
done  their  work  in  clearing  and  superficially  exhausting 
one  tract  of  land,  move  off  westward  to  do  the  same  with 
another,  selling  off  each  farm  in  succession  to  men  pos- 
sessed of  more  knowledge  than  themselves ;  whose  skill 
and  industry  must  bring  back  the  fertility  which  had 
disappeared  under  the  treatment  of  their  predecessors,  and 
who  have  no  temptation  to  fall  off  into  negligent  modes 
of  farming. 

According  to  this  view,  the  emigration  of  this  class  of 
wilderness-clearing  and  new  land-exhausting  farmers,  is 
a  kind  of  necessity  in  the  rural  progress  of  a  new  country. 
It  is  a  thing  to  rejoice  in  rather  than  to  regret,  as  I  found 


WOODSTOCK   CHARIVARI. 


66 


some  of  my  New  Brunswick  friends  doing.  At  all  events, 
I  believe  it  has  had  a  considerable  influence  in  setting  in 
motion  and  in  maintaining  that  current  of  human  movers, 
which,  beginning  in  a  tiny  rivulet  at  Newfoundland, 
gathers,  as  it  advances  westward,  till  it  forms  the  great 
river  which  is  now  flowing  so  fiercely  into  California. 

On  my  return  from  Scotch  Corner,  I  visited  a  fine  farm 
belonging  to  my  conductor,  the  president.  It  is  let  on 
shares  to  an  English  farmer.  The  landlord  stocks  it,  th  ~ 
farm  seeds  itself,  and  the  fanner  does  the  farm  work,  and 
receives  half  the  profits.  The  drought  of  the  season  had 
lightened  the  grain  crops,  but  I  saw  some  fields  of  excel- 
lent turnips,  and  some  of  oats  averaging  about  twenty- 
six  bushels  an  acre.  In  the  yard  was  a  fine  herd  of 
stock,  chiefly  mixed  Herefords  and  Devons,  with  a  little 
short-horn  blood.  They  were  coarse  and  thick  in  the 
skin,  but  probably  on  that  account  better  adapted  to  the 
climate.  On  the  whole,  though  the  owner  thought  I 
did  not  sufficiently  praise  them,  I  did  not  afterwards  see 
lu  the  province  a  herd  in  all  respects  equal  to  them. 

At  Woodstock,  in  the  evening,  we  were  gratified  with 
an  interesting  musical  entertainment.  It  seems  that  the 
Orangemen  are  numerous  in  some  parts  of  New  Bruns- 
wick, and  that  Woodstock  has  its  full  share  of  them. 
Some  twelve  months  or  more  ago,  a  riot  took  place 
between  them  and  the  Romanists,  (Mickeys,  as  they  are 
here  called,)  attended  by  the  destruction  of  a  consider- 
I  able  amount  of  property,  which  the  county  of  course  was 
called  upon  to  pay.  But  the  county  applied  to  the  pro- 
vincial House  of  Assembly,  to  have  the  sum  in  whole  or 
in  part  paid  out  of  the  provincial  treasury ;  and  in  refer- 
ence to  this  matter,  my  fellow-traveller  Mr  Brown,  as  a 
member  of  assembly,  had  given  a  vote  which  was  unsatis- 
^  ictory  to  the  Woodstock  Orangemen.  Hearing  of  his 
arrival,  therefore,  instead  of  lynching  him,  as  they  might 
have  done  a  little  farther  West,  they  serenaded  us  all  at 


i| 


;' 


i! 
iil 


!'H 


56 


Hannah's  farm. 


the  hotel  until  near  midnight  with  a  charivari  of  all  the 
most  discordant  noises,  vocal  and  instrumental,  which  the 
tongs,  kettles,  saucepans,  and  throats  of  Woodstock  could 
produce.  There  were  also  tar-barrels  and  bonfires  on  the 
occasion,  and  finally  a  burning  in  effigy.  Fortunately 
the  budding  Orangemen  did  not  personally  know  tlie 
man  they  thus  delighted  to  honour ;  so  that  Mr  Brown 
himself  flitted  about  the  blazing  barrels,  and  enjoyed  the 
burning  fun  as  much  as  any  of  them. 

ISth  Aug. — Though  a  little  tired  with  the  dissipation 
of  the  previous  night,  we  started  by  half-past  seven  A.M., 
to  proceed  up  the  river  as  far  as  the  Grand  Falls. 

On  leaving  the  town  we  turned  to  the  left,  forsaking 
the  river,  and  taking  an  inland  road,  for  the  purpose  of 
passing  through  some  of  the  new  settlements  in  this 
county.  Jacksontown,  at  the  distance  of  five  or  six 
miles,  was  the  first  settlement  we  entered  upon.  It  is 
about  fifteen  years  since  it  was  first  commenced.  The 
land  is  good,  though  now  and  then  patches  overspread 
with  sandy  drift  occur,  bearing  the  ill-omened  Everlasting 
as  their  natural  produce. 

I  stopped  a  few  minutes  at  Hannah's  farm,  on  whicli 
reapers  were  at  work.  It  consisted  of  200  acres,  of  whicii 
80  were  cleared.  This,  besides  building  a  nice  house, 
he  had  cleared  with  his  own  hands  in  thirteen  years. 
The  cradlers,  who  were  cutting  his  grain,  received  from 
1  to  1 5  dollars  a  day,  besides  their  victuals.  They  were 
lumberers,  who  at  this  season  of  the  year  are  usually  at 
home. 

Most  of  the  land  in  this  region  is  granted ;  and  here  I 
first  began  to  hear  from  the  mouths  of  working  farmers  j 
the  complaint  which  has  been  made  successively  in  all  j 
the  provinces,  and  is  not  unknown  in  the  newer  States  of 
the  Union,  that  large  portions  of  the  best  laud  have  been 
granted — that  is,  sold  at  the  Government  price — to  spe- 1 
culators,  who  buy  for  the  purpose  of  holding  on  till  the  | 


Ur  !     ^ 


IRON  ORE   AND  SMELTING  FURNACES. 


57 


neighbourhood  is  improved,  and  then  selling  at  an  increase 
of  price.  This  is  provoking  to  poor  men  who  wish  to 
buy  farms,  and  settle  near  their  friends;  but  it  is  injurious 
to  tlie  whole  community,  in  a  country  where  roads  are 
comparatively  few,  and  desirable  lands  in  many  localities 
arc  at  present  worthless,  because  miles  of  tangled  forest 
shut  them  out  from  communication  with  the  world. 

It  is  very  difficult  either  to  remedy  or  to  prevent  this 
evil.  The  provincial  Government  are  endeavouring  to 
make  it  less  frequent  in  future,  by  limiting  the  extent  of 
individual  grants,  and  by  requiring  that  a  certain  pro- 
portion of  each  grant  shall  be  cleared  within  an  assigned 
number  of  years. 

Notwithstanding  the  obstacle  presented  by  the  pre- 
emption of  so  much  of  the  good  land,  in  this  neighbour- 
hood, by  persons  who  do  not  intend  to  improve  it,  the 
extension  of  this  settlement  has  proceeded  rapidly  of  late. 
The  failure  of  the  lumber-trade  is  inducing  more  young 
men  to  adopt  what  is,  after  all,  a  surer  mode  of  living ; 
and  back  lots  are  taken  up  and  being  cleared,  where  the 
line  of  farms  next  the  road  is  already  disposed  of.  The 
same  is  the  case  on  the  Maine  side  of  the  boundary  line, 
where  the  land  is  also  good  and  settlers  fast  pouring  in. 

Iron  ore  is  abundant  in  this  neighbourhood.  It  is  of 
the  hematite  variety,  and  a  smelting  furnace  has  lately 
been  erected  within  a  short  distance  of  Woodstock,  for 
the  purpose  of  smelting  it.  It  is  reduced  by  means  of 
charcoal,  and  the  hot-blast  is  employed.  The  iron 
obtained,  up  to  the  time  of  my  leaving  the  province,  was 
too  brittle  for  casting,  but  it  was  said  to  make  good 
malleable  bars  and  steel.  I  visited  the  works  on  my 
return  down  the  river,  and  it  appeared  to  me,  considering 
all  the  circumstances,  that  the  company  had  begun  their 
works  on  too  large  and  expensive  a  scale.  Some  of  the 
less  ambitious  establishments  on  the  Housatonic  river,  in 
Connecticut,  would  have  probably  been  safer  models  for 


' 


M 


ITINERANT   LECTUREK8. 


(it 


I  '1 


I    iii: 


them  at  first,  than  the  huge  smclting-furnaces  of  Scotland 
and  Wales.  The  success  of  these  works,  however,  is  of 
great  moment  to  the  province,  inasmuch  as  their  failure 
would  be  a  serious  check  to  future  adventures  of  capital 
in  similar  undertakings. 

The  land  on  this  day's  journey  continued  good  nearly 
the  whole  way ;  and  the  crops  of  oats  and  potatoes  were 
more  like  good  crops  in  Scotland  than  anything  we  had 
yet  seen.  The  English  or  Scottish  farmer  who  may 
think  of  settling  in  this  country  must  not  consider  himself 
as  quite  out  of  the  world  in  these  parts.  There  are 
wandering  teachers,  who  supply  with  knowledge  the 
thirsty  cultivators  in  the  humblest  villages.  Notices  are 
stuck  up  in  the  inns,  or  are  printed  in  the  newspapers, 
or  are  spread  in  the  form  of  handbills,  such  as  two  I 
met  with  to-day — "  Mr  Humphreys  intends  to  lecture  in 
this  village,  during  the  current  week,  on  electricity  and 
the  electric  telegraph." — "  Mr  Dow  intends  to  lecture  on 
physiology  and  anatomy  during  the  present  week ;  we 
hope  our  friends  will  give  him  full  houses  during  his  stay 
among  them." 

That  these  wanderers  receive  encouragement,  not  only 
here  but  on  the  other  side  of  the  border,  is  shown  by  an 
amusing  circumstance  told  me  subsequently  by  a  fellow- 
traveller,  when  on  my  way,  through  Maine,  from  Bangor 
to  Boston.  Though  a  Bangor  man,  he  had  property 
and  business  which  took  him  frequently  into  Georgia. 
"  When  on  his  way  to  Boston,  on  one  occasion,  with  a 
friend,  who  had  also  been  with  him  in  Georgia,  they 
dined  at  a  hotel,  where  they  saw  opposite  to  them  at 
table  two  New  Englanders,  whom  they  had  last  seen 
peddling  in  Georgia.  '  Well,'  says  his  friend  to  one  of 
them,  '  when  did  you  quit  your  peddling  in  Georgia?' 
The  questioned  made  no  reply,  but,  swallowing  his  dinner 
expeditiously,  as  a  New  Englander  can,  he  went  out  of 
the  room,  and,  waiting  for  my  friend  and  his  companion, 


m 


MOUTH   OP  THE  TOBIQUE, 


69 


accosted  them  with,  '  For  heaven's  sake,  say  nothinj^ 
about  the  peddling.  We  have  have  been  up  to  Maine, 
and,  as  our  wares  were  out,  we  took  to  the  lecturing. 
It's  not  a  bad  trade ;  we  have  made  sixteen  dollars 
a-day  since  we  began.  I  take  astronomy,  and  he  does 
the  phrenology.  We  have  been  lecturing  in  Bangor, 
and  we  have  promised  to  go  back.  Wo  had  an  invitation 
to  go  down  to  Bucksport,  but  we  heard  of  some  people 
there  who  knew  quite  as  much  as  ourselves,  so  we 
declined.  Now,  you  won't  say  anything  about  the 
peddling.' " 

We  had  returned  to  the  St  John,  dined  on  its  banks 
at  an  inn,   situated   at  the   mouth   of  what  is  called 
I  IJutterniilk  Creek,  and  had  driven  nearly  thirty  miles 
further,  when  we  found  ourselves  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Tobique,  a  river  which  comes  from  the  east,  and  falls 
I  into  the  left  side  of  the  St  John.      This  position   is 
I  remarkable  for  an  extensive  second  interval  or  terrace, 
of  great  extent,  and  of  comparatively  rich  land,  which  is 
all  cleared  and  settled,  is  finely  cultivated  and  improved, 
land  is  pleasant  to  the  European  eye,  from  the  number  of 
pvell-built,  clean,  comfortable-looking  houses,  which  are 
jspread  over  the  flat.     The  place  has  also  its  Episcopal 
jcliuich,  and,  on  the  whole,  appeared  to  me  rather  an 
?nviable  locality,  though  at  present  a  considerable  distance 
from  the  world.     It  is  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  river 
tobique,  which  flows  through  a  still,  wild,  but  agricul- 
turally capable   country,  which  fifty  years  hence  will 
sustain  a  considerable  population.     This  flat,  therefore, 
Is  likely  to  be  the  site  of  a  future  town  of  some  importance. 
The  upland  here  is  also  of  good  quality.     A  farm  of 
^00  to  250  acres  upon  it,  with  40  or  50  cleared,  and  a 
^ood  house,  will  sell  at  present  for  about  a  pound  cur- 
|"ency  an  acre. 

Three  or  four  miles  further  of  a  pleasant  drive  brought 
IS  to  the  mouth  of  the  Aroostook  river,  which  flows  from 


VALLEY   OF  THE   AROOSTOOK. 


u 


'11 


|i 


tlic  interior  of  Maine,  and  empties  itself  into  the  right 
side  of  the  St  John.  This  is  an  important  river,  as,  in 
seasons  of  high  water,  it  admits  of  ahout  400  miles  of 
inland  and  lake  navigation,  {Oesmr,)  and  passes  through 
a  rich  valley,  forming  one  of  the  best  farming  regions  of 
the  State  of  Maine.  The  valley  of  the  Aroostook  wan 
one  of  the  most  valuable  portions  of  the  disputed  terri- 
tory, and  one  which  both  New  Brunswick  and  ]\raine 
desired  to  possess.  At  present,  this  valley  forms  a  rich 
and  almost  untouched  lumber  country,  from  which  large 
quantities  of  timber  are  floated  down  to  the  St  John  on 
the  waters  of  its  river.  By  treaty,  the  free  navigation  of 
the  St  John  is  secured  to  the  produce  of  the  Aroostook. 
We  stopped  for  the  night  at  an  inn  at  the  mouth  of  this 
river,  which,  in  the  height  of  the  lumbering  season,  is 
alive  with  swarms  of  lumberers,  whose  hobnailed  shoes 
had  everywhere  indented  the  wooden  floors  of  the  rooms 
and  passages.  A  few  scattering  men  were  already  on 
their  way  up  to  the  woods. 

Sunday^  l^th  August. — The  English  traveller,  who 
starts  on  a  North  American  tour,  must  shake  off  some 
of  his  home  habits  and  notions.  Potatoes  to  breakfast, 
which  he  will  see  everywhere — without  which,  I  believe, 
in  these  provinces,  a  breakfast  would  be  considered  in- 
complete— is  not  an  American  custom  solely,  as  I  have 
met  them  many  years  ago  in  the  west  of  Scotland,  and, 
if  not  of  Irish  descent,  is  probably  a  home  provincial 
custom,  extended,  by  the  necessity  of  circumstances,  in 
the  foreign  provinces.  A  common  table  for  all  will  at 
first  surprise  him  more.  The  driver  and  his  passengers, 
the  hired  and  the  hirer,  and  the  humblest  wayfarer  who 
may  desire  to  dine  when  your  dinner  is  ready,  sit  down 
together.  We  had  ordered  our  own  meal  to-day  in  our 
own  sitting-room,  but  we  found  ourselves,  after  a  time, 
seated  side  by  side  with  ill-appointed  lumberers,  in  fustian 
jackets,  without  any  one,  except  myself,  appearing  even 


lUi 


WHEAT  80W1N0  ON   N£W   LAND. 


61 


to  feci  that  there  was  anything  out  of  rule  in  such  intru- 
sion. Wo  were  close  to  the  boundary  of  the  country 
where  all  men  are  bom  free  and  equal. 

The  wheat  crop  in  these  northern  parts  of  America 
has  a  history  which  is  interesting,  not  merely  to  the 
practical  agriculturist,  but  even  to  the  political  economist 
of  the  broadest  views.  I  shall  have  occasion  hereafter 
to  return  to  this  subject,  in  discussing  the  relation  of  the 
American  wheat-producing  capabilities  to  our  home  agri- 
cultural condition.  I  shall  here,  however,  mention  two 
particulars  of  a  practical  kind. 

In  tiio  first  clearing  of  a  piece  of  woodland,  when  he 
hews  his  farm  out  of  the  forest,  the  new  settler  sows  his 
wlieat  in  the  autunui.  The  winter  snows  fall  and  cover 
it,  till  one  sweeping  thaw  comes  in  spring,  when  the 
green  blades  spring  up  under  the  influence  of  the  sun, 
and  ripen  into  a  healthy  crop.  But  after  the  woods  have 
been  cut  back,  and  the  land  has  been  more  widely  cleared, 
the  continued  covering  of  snow  is  not  so  certain.  Spring 
comes  with  partial  thaws  and  freezings,  which  throw  out 
the  winter  wheat,  and  kill  it  in  whole  or  in  part.  The 
only  practical  remedy  adopted  for  this  is  to  sow  spring 
wheat,  which  rushes  up  and  ripens  rapidly,  but  yields  a 
grain  which  is  said  to  be  not  equjil  in  quality  to  the 
1  winter  corn.  This  fact  has  an  important  bearing  on  the 
supply  of  first-quality  flour  to  the  American  and  Euro- 
I  pcan  markets. 

Again,  in  many  localities  the  wheat  crop  is  liable  to 
I  rust,  and  in  many  more  the  wheat-fly  has  come  like  a 
pestilence,  and  almost  put  an  end  to  the  cultivation  of 
it.  The  practical  remedy  for  these  two  evils  is  to  sow 
bearded  wheat.  Of  this  two  varieties  are  here  sown, 
both  spring  wheats.  The  one  is  known  as  the  old 
bearded  red,  and  the  other  as  the  Black  Sea  wheat — a 
white  bearded  variety.  These  are  supposed  to  be  less 
liable  to  the  attack  of  both  the  vegetable  and  the  animal 


\ 


I'lf 


K  ;     ■      i':. 


1 1:1 


li  H 


♦ 


62 


INDIAN  VILLAGE. 


plague  ;  but  even  of  these  varieties,  average  crops,  until 
the  present,  which  is  a  very  promising  year  for  grain, 
have  been  by  no  means  to  be  depended  upon. 

After  breakfast,  I  drove  back  to  the  Tobique,  and 
attended  service  in  the  Episcopal  church.  The  service 
was  well  read,  but  the  congregation  was  small,  and  the 
horses  and  waggons  tied  to  the  railing  showed  that  most 
of  the  people  had  come  from  considerable  distances.  The 
Episcopal  clergy  of  the  province  have  hitherto,  I  believe, 
been  almost  entirely  supported  by  remittances  from  the 
Propagation  Society  at  home.  These,  as  the  country 
becomes  settled, "  ist,  of  course,  be  withdrawn ;  and  the 
Bishop  is,  I  undc. stand,  exerting  himself  very  much  in 
preparing  the  people  for  the  coming  emergency. 

At  the  mouth  of  the  Tobique,  on  a  flat  high  intervale 
of  good  land,  upon  the  opposite  or  left  bank  of  the  St 
John;  is  situated  a  native  village,  of  twenty  or  thirty 
houses,  containing  about  a  hundred  and  twenty  Indians. 
After  forenoon  service,  I  crossed  to  the  village  in  a  canoe, 
and  was  informed  by  my  Indian  ferryman  that  the  popu- 
lation was  nearly  all  collected  in  the  chapel.  I  went 
towards  it,  and,  as  I  approached,  a  few  small  children  ran 
screaming  from  me  in  terror,  and  beat  lustily  for  admis- 
sion at  the  chapel  door.  On  reaching  the  chapel,  I  was 
admitted  by  some  of  the  older  people  attracted  by  the 
noise.  I  found  a  few  well-dressed  Indians,  men  and 
women,  seated  in  pews,  but  the  herd  of  the  squaws  and 
dirty  children  squatted  on  the  floor  at  the  end  of  the 
chapel.  There  might  be  thirty,  young  and  old,  in  the 
place,  and  two  men  of  the  tribe,  kneeling  at  a  respectful 
distance  from  the  altar,  were  doing  their  best  to  chaunt 
the  service.  I  staid  a  few  minutes,  and  then,  having  put 
a  bit  of  silver  into  the  collection-box,  and  distributed  all 
the  copper  coins  I  had  among  the  little  ones  as  I  went 
out,  I  left  them  apparently  not  dissatisfied  with  my  in- 
trusion. 


n  If 


MELLICETES   IN  THE  PROVINCE. 


63 


On  walking  down  the  village,  I  met  one  or  two  of  the 
Indian  ijien,  and  on  anking  them  why  they  were  not  at 
prayers,  they  said  they  did  not  belong  to  the  priest's 
people ;  but  whether  they  were  Protestants  or  heathens, 
I  did  not  clearly  make  out.  I  then  went  into  several  of 
the  cottages,  and  found  in  some  only  women  and  children, 
in  others  brawny  men  devouring  wild-berries,  which  the 
women  had  been  collecting  in  the  woods.  Some  of  the 
cottages  were  clean,  and  the  inmates  comfortably  clad. 
This  was  especially  the  case  with  the  house  and  family 
of  the  chief,  whom  I  visited  after  his  return  from  the 
chapel,  where  he  had  been  officiating  in  the  absence  of 
the  priest.  He  was  an  old  man,  small  in  size,  but  with 
a  very  intelligent  face. 

These  Indians  are  of  the  Mellicete  tribe,  as  I  believe 
are  all  the  Indians  of  New  Brunswick.  They  are  a 
robust  race  of  men,  not  half  civilised  however,  and  never 
to  be  weaned  from  their  love  of  the  woods.  At  this  place 
they  own  a  reserve  of  16,000  acres,  a  large  portion  of 
which  is  choice  land,  which  they  will  never  cultivate,  and 
which  must  by-and-by  be  sold  by  Government  in  some 
way  for  their  benefit.  There  are  altogether  in  the  pro- 
vince some  1400  Indians,  and  they  hold  reserves  of  about 
63,000  acres  of  land. 

I  returned  to  the  Aroostook  to  dinner,  and  afterwards 
went  on  to  the  Grand  Falls.  This  was  a  drive  of  four 
hours,  and,  by  the  aid  of  the  good  roads,  we  reached  the 
Falls — otherwise,  the  town  of  Colebrook — about  8  p.m. 
The  roads  in  New  Brunswick  are  really  good,  and  very 
creditable  to  the  province.  This  opinion,  which  I  had 
already  formed,  was  subsequently  everywhere  confirmed, 
after  I  had  travelled  nearly  2000  miles  upon  them  in  ail 
directions. 

About  half  way  between  the  Aroostook  river  and  the 
Grand  Falls,  we  passed  a  small  settlement  of  Koman 
Catholic  Irish,  whose  very  failings,  wherever  we  met 


A 


i(  ,111    . 


V 


64 


INDUSTRIOUS  IRISH  SETTLERS. 


with  them,  henceforth  appeared  as  vh'tues  in  the  eyes 
of  ray  fellow-traveller,  in  whose  honour  the  Woodstock 
charivari  had  been  got  up  by  the  Woodstock  Orangemen. 
These  families,  howevei,  were  really  industrious,  had 
good  crops,  and  appeared  to  be  thriving.  One  of  the 
settlers,  called  MacLachlan,  had  eleven  children,  and  a 
farm  of  200  acres,  of  which  60  were  cleared.  He  had 
cut  10  tons  of  hay,  and  had  some  of  the  best  oats  and 
potatoes  I  had  seen  in  the  province.  He  had  been  in 
the  country  four  years,  and  had  cleared  all  with  his  own 
hands:  I  suppose  that  means  with  the  help  of  his  chil- 
dren, for  all  can  do  something.  He  said  an  emigrant 
who  had  £20  in  his  pocket,  after  paying  for  his  land, 
would  he  easy.  He  only  required  a  little  to  carry  him 
on  till  his  first  crops  were  gathered.  His  own  200  acres, 
with  the  60  cleared,  he  said,  might  now  be  worth  £100. 
There  were  many  excellent  hard-working  Scotch  and 
Irish  farmei's  in  the  neighbourhood,  he  added  ;  the  natives 
— native-born  he  meant — were  too  lazy,  and  liked  lum- 
bering better.  Indeed,  the  more  I  saw  of  North  America 
all  over,  the  more  I  was  satisfied  that  an  indolent  man 
will  do  better  at  home  than  on  the  new  continent ;  but 
industry  and  patience  are  sure  to  be  rewarded  with  com- 
petence and  a  comfortable  living. 

Another  Irishman  had  been  three  years  in  the  country, 
and  a  third  only  one  year.  All  were  happy,  and  had 
excellent  crops,  with  new-chopped  land  burning  for 
those  of  next  year.  One  of  these  had  paid  £50  for  liis 
200  acres,  because  a  ^ittle  of  it  had  been  cleared.  The 
Government  price  is  3.s.  currency  an  acre,  and  3d.  for 
surveying,  payable  in  four  instalments,  or  20  per  cent 
discount  for  ready  money ;  so  that  1000  acres  would 
cost  £120  to  Government,  and  £12  to  the  surveyor. 

These  Irish  settlers  struck  me  js  representing  industry 
personified.  I  saw  many  others  of  the  same  nation, 
afterwards,  of  whom  I  could  not  speak  so  well.     Tlie  1 


mi 


THE  GRAND  FALLS. 


65 


labour  they  undergo  appears  severe ;  but  I  am  told,  by 
those  who  have  themselves  gone  through  it,  that  it  is 
not  really  so  severe  as  it  appears  to  be,  and  that  it  is  by 
no  means  unpleasant.  This  is  intelligible  enough  after 
the  anxieties  and  seasoning  of  the  first  year  are  over, 
and  the  crops  on  the  new  land  begin  to  ripen.  One 
comfort-  certainly  attends  it,  the  greatest  of  all  earthly 
ones,  undisturbed  good  health.  Ague  and  fever,  as  1 
have  already  said  of  the  sea-coa^t  of  the  province,  are 
unknown ;  and  a  healthier  set  of  children  of  all  ages  I 
have  never  seen  anywhere  than  greet  the  eyes  of  the 
stranger  all  over  this  province. 

The  slate  rocks  towards  this  upper  part  of  the  St 
John  become  more  calcareous,  and  beds  of  limestone 
occasionally  occur,  which  will  afford  an  additional  means 
of  advancement  to  the  future  agriculture  of  the  country. 

The  town  of  Colebrook  is  prettily  situated,  on  a  little 
peninsula,  formed  by  a  sharp  turn  of  the  river  St  John, 
which  here  precipitates  itself  perpendicularly  over  a 
ledge  of  slate  locks  from  a  height  of  58  feet.  It  then 
proceeds  through  a  narrow  rocky  gorge  of  hard  slate 
for  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile,  in  the  course  of  which 
It  descends  58  feet  more,  making  its  total  descent  116 
feet.  As  a  picturesque  object  the  falls  are  very  strik- 
ing, when  seen  from  the  high  over-hanging  rocky 
cliffs,  and  well  deserve  a  visit.  Economically,  they 
form  a  great  reservoir  of  mechanical  power,  which  on 
some  future  day  will,  no  doubt,  be  made  available  for 
useful  purposes.  Some  years  ago  saw  -  mills  were 
erected  upon  the  edge  of  the  falls  on  a  large  scale,  and 
expensive  constructions  made  by  the  late  Sir  John 
Caldwell,  which  brought  many  people  about  the  place, 
and  for  a  time  quickened  the  growth  of  the  town. 
These  works,  however,  have  been  long  ago  abandoned  ; 
the  buildings  have  been  allowed  to   go  to  decay,  and 

VOL.  I.  ji 


i 


u 


% 


66  TOWN  OF  COLERIDGE. 

only  a  few  rare  trees  were  being  cut  up,  by  this  huge 
force,  when  I  visited  the  scene  of  Sir  John's  indefati- 
gable exertions,  and  expensive  ingenuity. 

Coleridge,  being  the  lower  limit  of  the  navigation  of 
the  Upper  St  John,  which  drains  an  extensive  and 
improvable  country,  must  hereafter  become  a  town  of 
considerable  consequence.  This  will  be  hastened  and 
increased  if  the  proposed  improvement  in  the  St  John, 
between  the  head  of  the  tide-waters  near  Fredericton, 
one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  below  the  Grand  Falls,  be 
carried  into  effect,  and  if,  by  means  of  a  canal  through 
the  peninsula  at  Coleridge,  the  navigation  of  the  upper 
can  be  connected  with  that  of  the  lower  part  of  the  river. 
It  is  unfortunate  that,  in  a  new  country  like  this,  there 
is  always  more  to  be  done  than  there  is  of  money  to  do 
it  with ;  and  that,  consequently,  many  most  desirable 
improvements  are  obliged  to  stand  over,  till  more 
favourable  times  arrive.  Colebrook  is  a  very  old 
military  station,  which  it  is  now  thought  expedient  to 
strengthen,  from  its  proximity  to  the  American  boundary 
as  fixed  by  the  x\shburton  Treaty. 


;,; 


IN 


11 


ii!!L 


CHAPTER   in. 


Upper  St  John. — Colonel  Coomb's  farm. — Growth  and  consumption  of 
buckwlicat. — Aversion  to  the  oat  among  settlers  of  French  extraction. 
— Valley  of  the  Madawaska. — Edmonston,  or  Little  Falls. — Honties 
of  the  Acadian  farmers. — Tea-dinners. — Ascent  of  "the  river  Tobique. 
— Kiel,  upper  lands  of  this  river. — Large  growth  of  buckwheat. — 
AViiy  buckwheat  is  unfavourable  to  good  husbandry. — Terraces  of 
the  St  John  River.  Autumnal  tints  of  North  America — Ferry  farm 
at  Woodstock. — Time  of  growth  of  grain  crops  in  New  Brunswick. — 
Sumach  trees, — Apple  orchards. — Scotch  settlement. — Making  land 
at  Frcdericton. — Rising  of  stones  under  the  influence  of  the  frost. — 
Turnip  culture  in  the  province. — Fire-weeds  and  Canada  thistle. 
—  Stanley,  the  scttleruout  of  the  New  Brunswick  Land  Company. 
— Heavy  wheat  in  this  province. — Price  of  farms. — Hop  culture. — 
Running  fire  in  the  fields. — Bilbeiy  swamp. — Farm  and  opinion  of 
au  Aberdonian. — Advice  to  intending  emigrants. — Wild  raspberry. — 
Raspberry  hay, — Mare's-tail  cut  for  hay.— Boistown. — Great  fire  of 
1825. — Gloomy  landscape. — Fires  in  the  forest. — Nakedness  of  tho 
cleared  land. — An  Irish  settler. — Evil  of  farmers  engaging  in  tho 
timber  trade. — Deserted  farms,  and  emigration  to  the  United  States, 
how  brought  about. — Success  of  farmers  in  New  Brunswick,  who 
mind  their  fanns  only. — Price  of  farms  on  the  Miramichi  River. — 
Increasing  consumption  of  oatmeal. — Legislative  bounty  for  the 
erection  of  oatmeal  mills. 

WoyDAY,  20th  August. — At  nine  in  the  morning  we 
Btarted  for  Edmonston,  or  the  Little  Falls,  at  th.3  mouth  of 
Ihe  Madawaska,  where  the  latter  river  empties  itself 
Into  the  St  John.  The  distance  is  about  fortv  miles. 
Ifter  ascendinj^  the  right  bank  about  a  mile,  we  crossed 
llic  river  by  a  ferry-boat,  and  continued  our  journey  up 
klic  left  bank,  as  only  a  few  miles  farther  up  the  state  of 
plaine  comes  down  to  the  water's  edge,  and  the  river 


\ 


•It'. 


68 


COLONEL  COCMB'S  FARM. 


forms  the  international  boundary.  The  soil  and  country, 
after  wo  crossed  the  river,  immediately  became  of  infe- 
rior quality,  and  the  settlers  appeared  to  be  both  needy 
and  indifferent  cultivators. 

They  were  chiefly  French  Canadians,  brought  here 
to  work  at  the  saw-mills ;  and  who,  seven  years  ago,  on 
the  failure  of  this  employment,  squatted  on  the  pieces  of 
land  they  now  occupy.  Freehold  grants  of  land  on  the 
Upper  St  John  were  withheld  by  the  Government,  till 
about  a  year  ago,  when  the  disputed  boundary  question 
had  been  settled. 

At  a  distance  of  twelve  miles  we  came  to  Colonel 
Coomb's  farm,  the  first  piece  of  good  land  of  any  extent, 
upon  the  bank  of  the  river,  which  we  had  yet  passed. 
The  hill-tops  on  each  side  of  the  road  and  river  were 
generally  covered  with  soft  wood;  but  farther  inland 
the  land  was  said  to  be  better  adapted  to  farming  pur- 
poses. It  is  generally  upland  of  second  quality,  a  sort 
of  third-rate  soil. 

Colonel  Coomb's  fcrm  contains  1025  acres,  of  whicb 
80  only  were  cleared.  Of  these,  50  acres  consist  of 
high  intervale  or  terrace,  of  a  light-coloured  clay  loam, 
occasionally  sandy,  as  is  the  case  with  nearly  all  the 
higher  terraces.  This  intervale  land  he  valued  at  £15 
an  acre,  the  cleared  upland  at  £3,  and  the  whole  farm 
at  ^^1200  to  riC'lSOO.  On  the  intervale  I  walked  through 
beautiful  crops  of  potatoes,  oats,  and  Indian  com.  The 
heads  of  the  Indian  corn  were  large,  and  fully  formed, 
but  had  not  yet  escaped  from  their  sheath.  It  was 
sown  on  the  28th  of  May,  and  the  crop  I  baw  v/oulJ 
yield  50  or  60,  though  the  average  is  only  about  301 
bushels  an  acre.     It  generally  ripens  here. 

On  the  poorer  soil  of  the  upland,  buckwheat  is  sown, 
and  yields  35  bushels.     This  grain  has  been  everywhere  I 
very  extensively  cultivated  in   New  Brunswick  of  late 
years,  and  since  the  wheat  has  become  so  precarious  a  crop. 


CULTIVATION  OP  BUCKWHEAT. 


69 


Wc  saw  large  breadths  of  it,  on  our  way  up  the  valley, 
(luring  the  remainder  of  this  day's  journey  ;  and,  sub- 
sequently, in  nearly  all  parts  of  the  province.  Colonel 
Coomb  assured  us  that  at  least  three-fourths  of  all  the 
bread  consumed  in  this  district  was  made  of  buckwheat. 
It  is  used  chiefly  in  the  state  of  thin  cakes,  called  pan- 
cakes. These  are  generally  small,  and,  when  nicely 
made  and  browned,  very  much  resemble  our  English 
crumpets,  with  half  their  thickness.  They  are  eaten 
hot,  and  generally  with  butter  and  molasses,  or  maple 
honey.  All  over  Northern  America  these  pancakes  are 
seen  at  the  breakfast  and  tea  table,  and  are  really  very 
good.  As  to  the  nutritive  quality  of  this  grain,  I  find 
by  analyses,  which  I  have  since  had  made,  that  buck- 
wheat flour  possesses  about  the  same  value,  in  this 
respect,  as  our  best  varieties  of  British-grown  wheat. 

Potatoes  yield  here  250  bushels  an  acre,  and  oats  30 
bushels.  Wheat  used  to  yield  25  bushels.  Newly 
cleared  upland  will  yield  20,  and  old  upland  10  to  15 
bushels  of  wheat,  when  this  crop  succeeds  ;  but  for  the 
last  seven  years  Colonel  Coomb's  had  not  raised  enough 
for  his  own  family. 

I  found  that  in  this  valley,  as  I  subsequently  found  in 
Lower  Canada  and  in  the  north-eastern  parts  of  this 
province,  the  oat  is  generally  disliked  as  food  by  the 
natives  of  French  extraction.  This  is  one  reason  why 
they  live  so  much  on  buckwheat  cakes,  and  on  bread 
made  of  mixed  buckwheat,  barley,  and  rye.  The  oata 
of  New  J3ruuswick  are  very  good,  and  are  said  sometimes 
to  weigh  as  much  as  50  lb.  a  bushel.  They  form  one  of 
the  most  certain  crops  of  the  province  ;  and  hence  both 
the  cultivation  and  the  use  of  the  oat  for  food  has,  of 
late  years,  been  greatly  extending. 

The  oat  is  a  kind  of  grain  which  differs  much  in  qua- 
lity and  in  palatablcness,  according  to  the  variety  raised , 
the  climate  in  which  it  is  grown,  and  the  way  in  which  it 


i 


;rTi%S';i 


70 


SCOTCH  AND  ENGLISH  OATS. 


:!„ 


is  manufactured  into  meal.  For  these  reasons,  English 
oats  and  oatmeal  are  generally  quite  different  from,  and 
inferior,  both  in  quality  and  flavour,  to  those  of  Scotland ; 
and  hence  one  reason  of  the  dislike  which  many  profess 
against  an  oatmeal  diet.  Thus  the  definition  of  Dr  John- 
son, instead  of  being  unjustly  regarded  as  a  bit  of  ill-na- 
tured satire,  should  be  considered  rather  as  the  expression 
of  a  wise  opinion,  in  which  he  was  before  his  time — that, 
"while  Scottish  oats  were  food  for  man,  English  oats  were 
only  food  for  horses."  As  elsewhere  in  tiie  province,  the 
land  on  the  Upper  St  John  is  generally  ill-treated, — the 
take-all-and-give-nothing  system  being  pursued,  partly 
from  ignorance  and  partly  from  idleness.  The  old  Aca- 
dian French,  who  are  settled  in  numbers  in  the  upper 
part  of  this  valley,  are  described  as  fine  industrious  men ; 
but  the  Lower  Canadians,  who  came  across  from  the 
shores  of  the  St  Lawrence,  are  represented  by  the  Eng- 
lish settlers  as  a  "  miserable  set."  This  probably  arises 
from  the  fact  that,  as  the  Irish  do  with  us,  the  poor  Lower 
Canadians  come  into  and  through  the  country  as  beggars 
in  great  numbers. 

There  was  little  change  in  the  character  of  the  country 
till  we  were  more  than  half-way  to  Edmonston.  The 
upland  was  covered  with  soft  wood,  rare  clearings,  little 
rich  intervale  land,  and  that  chiefly  at  the  mouths  of  the 
small  streams  which  come  into  the  St  John  from  the  north. 
But  beyond  this  the  country  improved  much,  both  in 
beauty  and  fertility.  The  river  channel  opens  up  into  a 
wide  valley,  with  extended  cultivation,  scattered  farm- 
houses, and  a  striking  back-ground  of  mountains  towards 
the  north.  For  the  last  twelve  miles  the  river  had 
become  the  boundary — the  one  bank  being  British,  and 
the  other  American,  as  it  is  usual  to  express  it.  This 
beautiful  valley,  with  the  rich  lands  which  border  the 
river  above  the  mouth  of  the  Madawaska,  as  far  almost 
as  that  of  the  river  St  Francis,  is  the  peculiar  seat  of  the 


i 


m 


VALLEY   OF   MADAVVASKA. 


71 


old  Acadian  French.  Driven  successively  from  one  set- 
tlement to  another,  during  our  struggles  on  the  American 
continent,  the  original  French  settlers  in  Nova  Scotia  had 
finally  found  refuge  in  this  remote  district.  They  are 
four  or  five  thousand  in  nutnher ;  and  as  they  occupied 
both  sld(!rt  of  the  river,  a  poiticn  of  them  were  transferred 
to  Maine,  when  the  river  became  the  boundary.  They 
are  all  Kouian  Catholics,  and  have  three  large  chapels  in 
the  district. 

It  was  pleasant  to  drive  along  the  wide  flat  intervale 
which  formed  the  Madawaska  Valley,  to  see  the  rich 

ops  of  oats,  buckwheat,  and  potatoes  ;  the  large,  often 


or 


haudsome,  and  externally  clean  and  comfortable-looking 
houses  of  the  Inhabitants,  with  the  wooded  high  grounds  at 
a  distance  on  ourrIght,and  the  river  on  our  left — on  which 
an  occasional  boat,  laden  with  stores  for  the  lumberers, 
with  the  help  of  stout  horses,  toiled  against  the  current 
towards  the  rarely  visited  head-waters  of  the  tributary 
streams,  where  the  virgin  forests  still  stood  unconscious 
of  the  axe. 

Twelve  miles  below  Edmonston,  we  dined  at  Kelly's. 
We  found  him  selling  mixed  white  and  black  oats  to 
the  lumberers  at  2s.  a  bushel.  He  said  Is.  3d.  a  bushel 
would  pay  the  cost  of  raising  them.  A  little  farther  on, 
we  crossed  the  mouth  of  the  Green  River,  which  comes  in 
from  the  north,  and  opposite  to  which,  on  the  American 
side,  we  saw  the  first  of  the  large  Roman  Catholic  chapels 
of  the  district,  beautifully  situated  at  the  foot  of  a  cliff. 
Within  four  miles  of  Edmonston,  we  passed  the  Mada- 
waska chapel,  a  large  and  fine  old  building,  with  a  conj- 
fortable  presbyt^re  close  by ;  and  soon  after  we  met  the 
cheerful-looking,  fatherly,  fat  old  priest  driving  home  in 
his  gig.  About  eight  in  the  evening  we  reached  Edmon- 
ston, or  the  Little  Falls,  which  was  the  limit  of  my 
travels  in  this  direction. 
The  river  Madawaska  here  comes  in  from  the  north. 


% 


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i  M ... 


72 


TOWN  OF  EDMONSTON. 


Its  banks  arc  settled  for  about  twelve  miles  above  its 
mouth,  along  the  road  to  Canada.  From  Edmonston  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Riviere  de  Loup  on  the  St  Lawrence, 
is  about  seventy-six  miles.  Along  this  line  of  road,  the 
provincial  mails  are  carried,  and  it  is  the  usual  route  of 
travellers  from  the  one  province  lo  the  other. 

Edmonston  is  a  small  village,  with  a  comfortable  inn, 
which  will  hereafter,  from  its  position,  rise  into  conse- 
quence. Being  so  near  the  border,  it  is  an  important 
military  position,  and  is  therefore  nominally  protected 
by  a  block-house,  perched  on  the  top  of  a  rock.  Above 
it,  on  the  St  John,  there  is  some  rich  intervale  land.  I 
walked  out  to  one  farm  upon  this  land,  and  found  beautiful 
crops  of  wheat,  oats,  barley,  buckwheat,  and  potatoes. 
The  upland,  immediately  bounding  the  valley,  is  rocky 
and  forbidding ;  but,  as  on  the  lower  part  of  the  Mada- 
waska  district,  the  land  is  said  to  improve  on  going 
farther  inland.  This  inland  country,  however,  is  at 
present  inaccessible  for  want  of  roads. 

August  21st. — At  six  in  the  morning,  we  started  on 
our  return,  and  drove  half-way  to  the  Grand  Falls  to 
breakfast.  Farms  in  this  part  of  the  valley,  with  one- 
half  cleared,  may  be  had  for  about  a  pound  an  acre.  That 
of  Mr  Cyr,  who  gave  us  breakfast,  consists  of  350  acres, 
with  150  cleared,  and  he  valued  it  at  £300  to  £400.  We 
found  a  new  house  building  here  by  a  respectable  Aca- 
dian, who  has  hitherto  lived  and  farmed  on  the  American 
side.  On  the  settlement  of  the  boundary,  he  became  a 
citizen  of  ]\[aine,  and  was  sent  by  his  neighbours  to  the 
state  legislature.  But  he  is  tired  of  the  new  dominion, 
and  is  building  himself  this  house  on  the  British  side,  that 
he  may  live  again  under  provincial  laws  and  among  his 
own  people  only. 

The  houses  of  the  Acadian  farmers  look  cleaner  and 
more  comfortable  without  than  they  often  do  within.  I 
here  entered  one  of  them,  and  found  myself  in  a  large 


li 


ACADIAN  UOUSES. 


73 


room,  In  the  middle  of  which  a  stove  was  placed,  where 
the  baking  and  co(jking  was  done,  round  which  the  family 
sat  to  warm  themselves,  and  the  pipe  from  which  ascends 
through  and  warms  the  upper  rooms.  All  the  other 
hnvcr  rooms  enter  from  this  general  family  apartment. 
In  some  houses  a  kitchen  and  sitting-room  are  formed 
under  this  first  floor  and  half  under  ground,  into  which 
the  family  retire  in  winter.  Except  the  stone  founda- 
tion, the  houses  consist  of  a  wooden  frame-work,  with 
planks  nailed  over  these,  and  the  exterior  finished  off 
with  shingles  or  thin  boards  tacked  on,  so  as  to  repel  the 
rains  and  drifting  snows.  I  found  a  party  at  dinner, 
eating  with  their  boiled  beef  the  very  dark  bread  of 
mixed  buckwheat,  barley,  and  rye,  of  which  I  have 
already  spoken.  As  in  Lower  Canada,  pease,  as  a  vege- 
table food,  have  here  been  largely  introduced  and  culti- 
vated since  the  wheat  crop  became  uncertain. 

Above  the  Grand  Falls  we  observed  no  hemlock  trees  ; 
and  it  is  said  that  they  do  not  grow  in  this  upper  region 
of  tl:e  St  John.  This  fact  will  probably  admit  of  a  geo- 
logical explanation.  Again,  as  to  the  intervale  land — the 
low  intervale  is  generally  lighter  and  more  sandy  than 
the  low  intervale  of  the  under  part  of  the  river.  This 
may  arise  partly  from  the  lighter  and  finer  particles  of 
drift  being  carried  by  the  flowing  waters  to  a  greater 
distance  downwards,  leaving  the  sand  behind,  and  partly 
from  the  nature  of  the  country  through  which  the  streams 
descend.  The  large  feeders — the  Aroostook,  the  To- 
blque,  and  others,  which  enter  below  the  Falls — may 
bring  down  from  the  softer  strata  through  which  they 
pass  the  materials  that  render  the  lower  intervales  more 
iieavy  in  their  soils,  .ind  more  fertile  in  their  produce. 

Pork  ham  was  a  frequent  relish  to  our  tea-dinners  and 
tea-teas  in  this  part  of  the  world ;  but  English  leather 
would  be  called  tender  in  comparison  with  the  hams 
which  are  the  pride  of  the  valley  of  Madawaska.     The 


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74 


MADAWASKA  PIGS. 


porkers  we  saw  frequently  grunting  along  were  to  me 
another  reminiscence  of  my  ancient  Swedish  adventures. 
Only,  in  every  undesirable  quality,  they  were  a  little 
rruyre  so  even  than  my  Scandinavian  acquaintances.  My 
natural-historical  fellow-companion  pronounced  them  a 
cross  between  a  giraffe  and  a  crocodile — the  former 
having  given  them  length  of  leg,  and  the  latter  length  of 
snout. 

Tea  is — in  this  province  at  least — almost  as  constant 
a  beverage  as  it  is  in  Bussia.  No  dinner  is  complete 
without  the  tea ;  and  one  of  the  females  of  the  household 
always  considers  it  her  duty  to  attend,  during  the  con- 
sumption of  the  potatoes  and  the  ham  and  other  good 
things,  to  pour  out  the  tea  for  the  company. 

In  Norway,  I  used  to  amuse  myself  with  the  perpetual 
Icuc'^  everywhere  set  before  us.  It  was  lax  to  breakfast, 
lax  to  dinner,  and  lax  to  supper — here,  as  a  witty  friend 
of  mine  observed,  it  was  "  Te  veniente,  te  redeunte  die." 

At  Grand  Falls  we  only  stopped  to  dine.  We  then 
returned  through  the  better  land,  and  the  more  familiar 
Scotch  and  Irish  settlements,  to  the  mouth  of  the  Restook 
river,  and  thence  to  the  mouth  of  the  Tobique,  where 
there  is  a  comfortable  inn.  To-day,  as  during  our  whole 
excursion,  the  beautiful  fire-weed,  Epilobium  angustifo- 
lium^  springing  up  with  its  tall  stem  and  purple  flowers, 
wherever  the  forest  has  been  burned,  and  sometimes  over 
great  breadths  at  once,  as  if  it  were  a  sown  crop,  formed 
an  interesting  and  striking  contrast  to  the  blackened 
stems  and  twigs  among  which  it  grew. 

22d  August. — The  mist  still  rested  thick  and  heavy  on 
the  waters  of  the  St  John,  flowing  here  at  the  rate  of 
eight  miles  an  hour,  when  at  five  minutes  before  five, 
after  a  hasty  breakfast,  my  Mellicete  Indian  boatman, 
John  Francis,  pushed  off   his  bark-canoe  to  pole  and 


Dried  salmon. 


VOYAGE   UP  THE  TOBIQUE. 


75 


paddle  me  up  the  Tobique  river  with  all  speed,  as  far  as 
the  Bed  Bapids. 

The  Tobiqne  and  the  Restook,  or  Aroostook,  are  both 
large  feeders  of  the  St  John,  descending  to  it,  as  I  have 
already  mentioned,  from  opposite  directions.  The  former 
comes  from  the  north-east,  and  is  derived  from  four  main 
sources,  which  unite  into  one  stream  about  eighty  miles 
above  its  confluence  with  the  St  John.  The  interior 
country  through  which  it  flows  is  still  unsettled,  with  a  few 
scattered  exceptions,  and  inaccessible  for  want  of  roads. 
At  the  time  of  my  visit  the  waters  were  low,  and  the 
river  full  of  shallows  and  rapids,  which  made  the  ascent 
fatiguing,  and  condemned  my  boatman  to  the  use  of  his 
pole  for  the  most  part,  instead  of  his  paddle.  He  pushed 
me  willingly  along,  however,  and  the  mist  gradually 
cleared  away  as  we  ascended.  After  a  couple  of  miles' 
polling,  we  came  to  the  narrows  of  the  Tobique,  where 
the  river  is  hemmed  in  by  high  rocks,  and  runs  deep  and 
swift  through  a  chasm  nearly  a  mile  in  length.  There 
was  to  me  a  new  interest  in  feeling  myself  heading  in  so 
frail  a  canoe  these  now  sullen  waters,  and  now  swift  and 
tumbling  rapids,  and  warily  avoiding  the  projecting  rocks 
and  rocky  islets.  Like  the  salmon  underneath,  the  canoe 
seemed  to  pick  out  for  itself,  as  if  by  instinct,  those  places 
in  the  rapids  which  were  the  easiest  and  safest  to  ascend. 
It  was  beautiful  to  see  with  what  skill  and  strength  of 
arm  it  was  propelled,  equally  through  the  strong  silent 
streams  and  the  troubled  and  noisy  currents. 

When  we  emerged  from  the  narrows,  and  had  over- 
come the  rapids  above  them,  the  river  opened  out,  and 
presently  the  sun  threw  some  of  his  rays  slantways 
through  the  mist  along  the  trees  on  the  right  bank  of 
the  river.  Seen  through  a  veil  of  unilluminated  mist,  the 
mixed  pines  and  birch  and  maple  thus  lighted  up,  on  the 
edge  of  the  expanding  sheet  of  water  which  lay  between 
us,  gave  the  scene,  as  we  emerged  from  the  gloom  of  tlie 


H 


76 


ALTERNATE  LAYERS  OP  DRIFT 


narrows,  an  exceeding  beauty.  While  on  the  opposite 
bank,  though  still  lying  in  the  shade,  the  hemlock  and 
cedar  trees,  with  their  long  waving  locks  of  hoary  lichen 
— which  selects  these  trees  as  favourite  spots  for  its  para- 
sitical growth — contrasted  strikingly  with  the  dark-green 
foliage  of  the  towering  spruce  and  the  lighter  hues  of  the 
white  birch. 

For  five  miles  we  passed  through  the  Indian  reserve, 
which,  as  I  have  said,  amounts  in  this  place  to  about 
16,000  acres.  Much  of  it  is  good  land,  though  soft  wood 
prevails  on  the  river  banks,  above  the  fringe  of  yellow 
birch  and  maple,  which  usually  skirts  the  margin  of  the 
stream. 

The  slate  rocks,  as  we  ascended,  were  usually  highly 
inclined,  and  covered  with  a  thick  coating  of  drift.  The 
angles  of  inclination,  however,  where  they  became  visible, 
after  we  had  made  some  progress  up  the  river,  appeared 
to  lessen,  and  occasional  indications  of  nearly  horizontal 
beds  were  seen. 

At  the  upper  end  of  the  Indian  reserve,  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  river,  beneath  the  site  of  a  small  saw-mill, 
the  slate  rock  appears  rising  about  twenty  feet  above  the 
river  bed,  and  dipping  down  the  stream  at  a  high  angle. 
But,  above  the  section  of  rock,  a  deep  bed  of  what 
appeared  to  be  rolled  slate-drift  fills  up  the  break— as  if 
the  ledge  of  rock  had  arrested  it  while  moving ;  and  a 
little  above  this  again,  the  gravel  bank  consists  of  about 
twenty  feet  of  this  slate-drift,  overlaid  by  about  six  feet 
of  red  sandy  drift ;  and  thin  traces  of  this  reddish  cover- 
ing are  spread  over  the  surface  at  considerable  distances 
from  the  sandstone  country  to  which  the  ascent  of  the 
Tobique  conducts  us.  If  these  two  layers  of  drift 
were  deposited  by  the  agency  of  the  same  current  run- 
ning in  the  same  direction,  they  ought  to  be  difi'erently 
disposed — the  red  sand  below,  and  the  slate-drift  above — 
as  the  newer  red  sandstone  rocks  would  be  carried  away 


before 
them, 
of  the 
spot  wa 
strew  i 
the  slat 
Abo\ 


SAND  ON  THE   UPPER  TOBIQUE. 


77 


before  the  water  could  touch  the  slates  which  lie  below 
them.  They  indicate,  probably,  a  change  in  the  direction 
of  the  current,  by  which  the  water  before  it  reached  this 
spot  was  made  to  traverse  the  red  sandstone  region,  and 
strew  its  spoils  over  the  previously  distributed  debris  of 
the  slates. 

Above  this  point  a  few  small  clearances  appeared,  and 
among  these  one  upon  a  little  intervale  on  the  left  bank, 
the  scene  of  John  Bradley's  farming  and  clearing  opera- 
tions. At  the  foot  of  this  intervale  nearly  horizontal 
beds  appeared,  for  the  first  time  since  I  left  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Fredericton — beds  of  red  sandstone,  of  which 
this  was  only  a  little  apparently  isolated  outlier.  Two 
miles  above,  at  the  Bed  Bapids,  so  called  from  the  colour 
of  the  rock  which  forms  them,  the  red  sandstone  basin 
begins.  It  consists  here  of  red  sandstones  and  marls, 
resting  on  the  edge  of  the  slate  rocks.  These  red 
rocks  extend  to  a  distance  of  thirty  miles  up  the  river, 
being  intermixed  about  half-way  up  with  interstratified 
cliffs  of  gypsum.  They  probably  belong,  therefore,  to 
the  gypsiferous  red  sandstones,  which  in  Nova  Scotia 
lie  immediately  under  the  coal  measures.  Nearly  the 
whole  of  the  region,  however,  over  which  they  extend,  is 
a  virgin  wilderness — covered  however,  in  many  places, 
with  varieties  of  hardwood  timber,  which  are  known  to 
indicate  good  land.  When  roads  shall  be  opened  into  it, 
I  infer,  from  the  nature  of  the  formation,  that,  except 
where  ungenial  drift  covers  the  surface  deeply,  this  will 
prove  one  of  the  best  farming  districts  in  the  province. 

At  the  Falls,  a  large  clearing  existed — a  good  house, 
large  barns,  some  land  in  cultivation,  and  the  ruins  of 
what  had  been  an  extensive  and  costly  saw-mill  establish- 
ment. Like  many  others  in  the  country,  this  establish- 
ment had  failed  and  gone  to  ruin,  and  the  house  and  land 
were  in  the  market.  The  spot  was  far  from  the  world, 
and,  for  want  of  roads,  almost  inaccessible,  except  by  the 


78 


FLIES  ON  THIS  EIVER. 


\  . 


river,  which  at  this  aeason  was  barely  deep  enough  for 
my  bark-canoe.  The  Provincial  Government,  however, 
will  by-and-by  open  roads  along  this  river,  and  arrange 
with  the  Indians  for  the  sale  of  their  grants,  when  the 
stream  of  emigration  is  sure  to  direct  itself  up  the  banks 
of  the  Tobique. 

I  found  the  farm  in  charge  of  a  Canadian,  who  had 
been  employed  as  a  workman  in  the  mills.  He  held  the 
100  acres  of  more  or  less  cleared  land  on  condition  of 
paying  to  the  proprietors  one-half  of  the  produce  of  hay. 
I  came  upon  him  in  a  hollow  while  he  was  sharpening 
his  scythe,  and  was  attracted  by  what  at  first  appeared  to 
be  a  quiver  suspended  across  his  shoulder.  On  a  nearer 
approach,  however,  it  proved  to  be  a  roll  of  cedar  bark, 
so  rolled  up  as  to  resemble  a  quiver,  which  was  lighted  at 
one  end,  and  attached  across  the  shoulders  in  such  a  way 
as  to  cause  the  smoke  from  the  burning  bark  to  float 
about  the  head  of  the  wearer.  This  was  to  keep  off  the 
flies.  It  is  an  Indian  mode,  I  believe,  in  common  use  in 
the  country ;  and  on  the  Tobique,  at  certain  seasons,  it  is 
said  to  be  indispensable.  The  flies  are  most  troublesome 
in  the  evening ;  and  I  had  already  elsewhere  on  the  St 
John  seen  fires  kindled  in  the  open  air  for  the  benefit  of 
the  cattle,  which  are  happy  to  come  in  the  evening  and 
hold  their  heads  in  the  smoke,  with  the  view  of  escaping 
to  some  extent  from  their  tormentors.  As  the  country 
becomes  cleared,  the  flies  may  be  expected  to  diminish. 

The  river  looked  very  tempting  above  the  Falls,  but 
I  had  no  time  to  ascend  higher;  I  therefore  again 
embarked  in  my  canoe,  and  descended  swiftly  to  the  St 
John.  My  Indian  took  nearly  five  hours  to  pole  me  up, 
and  he  worked  very  hard ;  but  we  descended  in  about 
half  the  time.  One  soon  acquires  confidence  in  a  bark- 
canoe,  even  in  rough  rapids ;  and  it  is  certainly  very 
interesting  to  observe  the  ease  with  which  the  sharp  eye 
and  practised  hand  of  an  Indian  boatman  keep  it  in  safe 


manures 


OBJECTIONS  TO  BUCKWHEAT. 


79 


waters.  A  little  touch  upon  a  rock,  at  a  well-calculated 
time  and  place,  snatches  you  from  undoubted  danger;  and 
the  ease  with  which  all  mishaps  are  avoided  is  apt  to 
make  the  stranger  fancy  that  it  is  the  simpleness  of  the 
Avork,  and  not  the  skill  of  the  workman,  that  bears  him  so 
confidently  along.  A  single  trial  of  his  own  powers, 
however,  soon  sets  him  right  on  this  point. 

At  the  mouth  of  the  Tobiquo  I  joined  my  fellow- 
travellers,  and  started  on  my  way  back  to  Woodstock. 
We  kept  along  the  banks  of  the  river  all  the  way,  and 
saw  some  fine  patches  of  intervale  land,  the  sites  of  good 
farms.  On  some  of  these,  buckwheat,  during  the  last 
few  years,  has  been  grown  in  very  large  quantity.  I 
was  told  of  six  or  seven  hundred  acres  being  raised  by 
one  individual. 

This  grain,  I  have  said,  is  sufficiently  nutritive.  Those 
accustomed  to  the  use  of  it  even  say  that  it  gives  more 
strength  than  any  other  food.  In  the  form  of  cakes,  the 
only  form  in  which  I  have  eaten  it,  it  is  also  very 
palatable.  But  the  objection  to  it  as  the  staple  food  of  a 
people  consists  in  the  ease  with  which  it  can  be  raised, 
the  rapidity  of  its  growth,  the  small  quantity  of  seed  it 
requires,  the  slovenly  and  unskilful  husbandry  which  is 
sufficient  in  favourable  seasons  to  secure  average  crops, 
and  the  casualties  to  which  the  crop  is  liable  from  the 
seasons.  It  grows  on  very  poor  land,  from  which  no 
other  grain  crops  in  remunerative  quantity  can  be 
obtained,  and  it  is  rarely  favoured  with  the  luxury  of 
manure.  Like  the  potato,  therefore,  it  induces  an  indo- 
lent, and  slovenly,  and  exhausting  culture.  And  suppos- 
ing the  crops  to  fail,  as  the  potato  and  the  wheat  have  done, 
the  poverty  of  the  land,  and  the  want  of  skill  in  the  farmer, 
will  render  it  very  difficult  to  replace  it  by  other  crops, 
which  demand  more  industry,  more  skill,  and  more  atten- 
tion to  the  collection,  preservation,  and  application  of 
manures,  and  which  will  refuse  to  grow  on  exhausted  land. 


80 


MISERY  OF  THE    BRETON   PEASANTRY. 


Some  of  the  facts  above  stated  may,  however,  be 
considered  as  arguments  In  favour  of  the  cultivation  of 
this  grain  ;  and,  ;vhere  the  soil  is  naturally  poor,  buck- 
wheat is  really  a  precious^  gift  of  nature,  by  which  sub- 
sistence may  be  raised  until,  by  cultivation,  the  land  is 
made  capable  of  producing  more  desirable  crops.  But 
it  is  the  prelude  of  evil  when  a  kind  of  food  which 
requires  little  exertion  to  obtain  it  becomes  the  staple 
support  of  a  people.  They  are  sure  to  become  indolent, 
and  careless  of  further  comforts.  And  if  the  food  be  one 
which,  like  buckwheat,  will  grow  upon  a  poor  soil,  they 
are  apt  to  allow  the  soil  to  become  poor,  because  it  will 
still  grow  this  crop.  Thus,  they  are  inevitably  exposed 
to  periodical  accessions  of  scarcity  or  famine,  and  by 
these  visitations  are  certain  to  be  reduced  to  permanent 
poverty. 

At  all  events  it  is  well-known  that,  in  those  parts  of 
Europe  where  buckwheat  is  the  staple  food  of  the  people, 
ignorance  and  neglect  of  good  husbandry  prevail,  and  great 
poverty  is  seen.  In  France  this  grain  is  regarded  as  the 
symbol  of  agricultural  misery,  and. of  the  most  detestable 
culture  ;  and,  with  the  chesnut,  is  the  "  triumph  of  impro- 
vidence and  idleness."  *  Of  the  whole  surface  of  France, 
less  than  an  eightieth  part  (bV)  is  sown  with  buckwheat ; 
but  in  the  province  of  Brittany  one-twelfth  of  the  whole 
surface  is  sown  with  this  grain.  "  The  exceeding  misery 
of  the  Breton  peasant  was  noticed  by  Neckar  in  1784, 
again  by  Arthur  Young  ten  years  later,  and,  relatively 
to  the  population  of  the  rest  of  France  and  of  Great 
Britain,  It  is  as  conspicuous  as  ever.  The  Interior  of  a 
Breton  cabin  in  the  North  Breton  departments  Is  described 
as  a  parallel  to  that  of  an  Irish  one — buckwheat  bread 
being  the  chief  sustenance,  instead  of  potatoes."  f 
Whether  this  grain  be  the  cause,  or  only  the  attendant 

•  Notes  Economiquea  sur  la  Statitque  Agricole  la  France,  p.  205. 
t  Proceedings  of  the  British  Association  for  1848,  p.  116. 


CONSTANT  COOKING   REQUIRED  BY   BUCKWHEAT.      81 

of  misery,  it  cannot  be  a  desirable  thing  to  see  it  become 
the  staple  food  of  any  population.* 

Another  consideration  which  may  strike  the  traveller 
through  countries  in  which  buckwheat,  the  potato,  and 
Indian  com  form  the  staple  food  of  the  people,  as  an 
important  objection  to  their  use,  is  the  constant  cooking 
they  require.  Wheat,  oats,  rye,  barley,  and  even  pease, 
can  be  made  into  bread  which  will  keep  several  days,  or 
even  weeks.  The  rye-bread  in  the  north  of  Europe  is 
in  many  families  baked  only  once  in  two  or  three  months. 
But  no  method,  I  believe,  is  yet  known  by  which  a 
palatable  bread,  which  can  be  kept  for  days,  can  be  made 
of  maize,  buckwheat,  or  potatoes.  Thus,  a  constant 
cooking  is  required,  a  constant  loss  of  time  in  the  house- 
hold, a  derangement  of  order  and  neatness,  and  a  large 
waste  of  fuel.  It  is  chiefly  female  labour  which  is 
expended  in  this  cooking  and  its  attendant  duties,  but 
this  labour  in  a  well-regulated  household  is  precious,  and 
can  be  fully  employed  in  other  ways,  in  supplying  the 
wants  and  contributing  to  the  comforts  of  a  family. 
This  I  consider  an  important  economical  and  social 
reason  why  bread-producing  grains  should  be  encouraged 
in  a  country,  rather  than  maize,  buckwheat,  or  potatoes. 

In  many  localities  through  which  I  passed,  in  this  and 
my  subsequent  excursions  among  the  Anglo-Saxon  popu- 
lation of  the  rural  parts  of  North  America,  I  found  poor 
log- cabins,  badly-cultivated  fields  —  dirty  with  weeds, 
and  disorderly  in  consequence  of  many  neglects — which 
light  and  easy  labour  would  rectify.    And  while  want  of 

*  In  Spain  and  in  Sardinia  the  sweet  acorn,  the  seed  of  the  Quercus 
gramuntia  of  Linnaeus,  is  eaten  as  a  principal  food  of  the  people  in 
certain  districts.  In  Spain  they  are  buried  till  they  lose  their  astringent 
taste.  In  Mara  Calagonis,  near  Cagliari,  in  Southern  Sardinia,  the 
miserable  inhabitants,  about  1100  in  number,  live  chiefly  upon  this 
acorn,  of  which  they  make  bread.  Tliey  extract  the  bitterness  from  the 
shelled  acorns  by  means  of  wood-ashes. 

VOL.  I.  P 


82 


TERRACES  ON  THE  ST  JOHN. 


hands  and  the  cost  of  hired  labour  was  complained  of, 
females  in  abundance  might  be  seen,  for  whom  the 
humble  log-cabin  could  scarcely  afford  a  reasonably 
constant  occupation.  Except  among  the  French,  and 
some  of  the  Irish  settlers,  it  is  considered  beneath  the 
dignity  of  a  female  to  engage  in  even  the  lighter  of  those 
healthy  field-occupations  which  are  not  disdained  by  the 
wives  and  daughters  of  our  European  peasantry. 

The  terraces  which  the  banks  of  the  St  John  exhibit 
in  so  many  places  were  very  marked  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Presque  Isle,  about  half-way  between  the  mouth 
of  the  Tobique  and  Woodstock.  As  many  as  five  suc- 
cessive elevations  are  occasionally  visible.  Professor 
Hitchcock  states  that,  on  the  Connecticut  Eiver,  he  has 
observed  in  some  places  as  many  as  eight  or  nine  terraces 
at  different  elevations.  He  states  also  that  they  only 
exist  where  traces  of  ancient  basins  in  the  river  are 
visible,  hemmed  in  by  barriers,  through  which  the  river 
has  gradually  cut  its  way — that  they  are  usually  not 
parallel  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  river — and  that  they 
are  not  level,  but  slope  downwards  in  the  direction  of 
the  course  of  the  river.*  My  leisure  for  observation  did 
not  permit  me  to  ascertain  how  far  these  generalisations 
of  Dr  Hitchcock  were  confirmed  by  appearances  on  the 
river  St  John. 

Another  interesting  and  beautiful  appearance,  with 
which  I  afterwards  became  more  familiar,  first  struck  me 
in  this  day's  drive.  This  was  the  exceeding  variety  and 
brilliancy  of  the  autumnal  tints,  which,  on  the  branches 
of  the  young  maple  and  poplar  trees  especially,  began 
already  to  exhibit  themselves.  From  a  brilliant  crimson, 
scarlet,  purple,  orange,  or  yellow,  to  a  dull  brownish  red, 
all  conceivable  shades  show  themselves  in  these  American 
forests.     And  what  struck  me  as  most  remarkable  was, 

*  Proceedings  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science  for  1849,  p.  148. 


AUTUMNAL  TINTS. 


83 


that  a  single  branch  of  a  young  maple  would  shine  out 
with  its  leaves  rich  in  these  magnificent  colours,  while 
every  other  branch  and  tree  around  it  retained  its  original 
green.  And  thus,  over  a  hill-side,  or  along  the  banks  of 
a  river,  patches  of  brilliant  flowers  seemed  to  be  arranged 
at  intervals  among  the  verdant  trees,  the  breadth  of 
which  varied  and  the  hues  changed  from  day  to  day. 
Yet  often  these  brilliant  crimson  hues  continue  perma- 
nently, and  later  in  the  season  drifted  heaps  of  fallen 
leaves  might  be  seen,  retaining  still  the  brightest  tints  of 
colour.  The  autumnal  landscape  of  Northern  America, 
coloured  after  nature,  must  appear  a  gross  exaggeration 
to  a  European  eye  which  has  never  witnessed  the  inimit- 
able splendour  of  the  reality.  The  bright  gold  of  the 
American  elm  mingles  in  these  landscapes  with  the  red, 
crimson,  and  orange  of  the  poplar  and  the  maple  ;  the 
unassuming  yellow  of  the  birch  and  beech,  the  browns  of 
the  basswood  and  the  ash,  and  the  ochrey  hues  of  the 
larch,  are  intermixed  with,  or  surrounded  by,  the  dark 
blackish  green  of  the  prevailing  pines. 

23c?  August. — On  leaving  Woodstock  this  morning 
for  Fredericton,  we  drove  along  a  rich  intervale,  four 
miles  in  length,  to  the  ferry,  where  we  crossed  the  river 
and  proceeded  down  the  left  bank.  While  waiting  for 
the  boat,  I  made  some  inquiries  regarding  the  ferry 
farm,  on  which  I  saw  beautiful  crops  of  oats  and  Indian 
corn.  This  farm  consists  of  800  acres,  of  which  from  60 
to  70  are  rich  upper  intervale  land,  producing  40  bushels 
of  oats  and  50  of  Indian  corn,  and  valued  by  the  owner 
at  £10  an  acre.  The  rest  is  upland.  The  owner  bought 
the  whole  two  years  ago  for  £700  currency.  It  used  to 
be  valued  at  £1500,  but  it  has  been  long  rented  to  an 
exhausting  tenant,  and  the  cultivated  part  has  had  no 
manure  for  thirty  years.  The  selling-everything-ofF 
system  was  followed,  and  the  rent,  in  consequence,  had 
gradually  fallen  from  £100  to  £40  a-year,  when  it  was 


84 


TIME  CROPS  TAKE  TO  GROW. 


Bold.  This  exhausting  system  has  been,  and  indeed  still 
is,  as  I  have  already  remarked,  the  almost  universally 
followed  one  in  North  America.  Ultimate  poverty  is 
the  consequence  of  it  to  the  furmer's  family,  and  finally 
a  sale  of  the  farm  itself  to  some  one  who  knows  how  to 
restore  it.  The  old  occupants  then  trudge  farther  west, 
buy  cheaply  in  a  new  country,  and  again  inflict  the  con- 
sequences of  evil  management  on  some  still  virgin  spot. 

This  farm  is  a  very  promising  one  still,  to  judge  by  the 
crops  of  Indian  corn,  oats,  potatoes,  and  turnips  I  saw 
upon  it.  For  money-returns  in  this  quarter  the  farmer 
looks  to  his  butter,  cheese,  and  pork. 

The  oat  and  barley  harvest  is  now  general  on  the 
river.  The  usual  time  of  growth  of  the  different  crops 
in  the  province  of  New  Brunswick  is,  for 


Spring  wheat. 
Barley,      .    . 
Oats,     .    .    . 

...    3  months  and  20  days. 
...    3      „        and    6    „ 
.    .    .    3      „        and  20    „ 

Spring  rye,    . 
Buckwheat,   . 

...    4      „ 
...    3      „ 

—    » 
and    3    „ 

Indian  corn,  , 

...    3      „ 

and  32    „ 

So  that,  as  the  oats  are  sown  ten  days  or  a  fortnight 
earlier  than  the  barley — generally  in  the  last  week  of 
April  or  the  first  of  May — these  crops  ripen  about  the 
same  time  in  August. 

On  descending  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  we  ob- 
served a  repetition  of  the  same  geologico-agricultural 
relations  as  we  had  obsei'ved  in  ascending.  On  passing 
from  the  silurian  to  the  older  slates,  the  surface  became 
more  stony  and  difficult  to  till  and  improve.  On  the 
gneiss  the  stones  became  still  more  frequent ;  and  upon 
the  granite  immense  granite  boulders,  sometimes  as  large 
as  cottages,  overspread  the  surface,  and  occasionally 
formed  a  perfect  pavement. 

The  sumach,  Rhus  typhina  (f)  a  few  trees  of  which  I 
had  seen  of  great  beauty  in  Nova  Scotia,  was  particularly 


APPLE-ORCHARDS  ON  THE  BT  JOHN. 


85 


abundant  along  the  base  of  tbe  hills,  and  of  the  rocky 
slopes  of  the  older  slates  and  gneiss  rocks.  In  a  few 
other  places  in  New  Brunswick,  and  afterwards  on  the 
trap  hills  near  Newhaven  in  Connecticut,  I  observed  the 
same  trees  growing  luxuriantly.  Six  species  of  JRhtta 
are  described  by  Dr  Torry  as  indigenous  to  the  state  of 
New  York.  The  greater  number  of  these  grow  naturally 
in  rocky  and  stony  places ;  but  whether  the  geological, 
physical,  or  chemical  relations  of  these  rocks  and  stones 
have  any  influence  in  determining  the  choice  of  a  natural 
habitat  is  not  stated  by  botanists.  This  department  of 
vegetable  physiology  has  hitherto  been  comparatively 
little  attended  to,  though,  in  the  interest  of  agricultural 
improvement,  it  is  deserving  of  especial  cultivation. 

We  travelled  thirty  miles  down  the  river  from  Wood- 
stock before  we  escaped  from  the  stony  pine-clad 
country.  As  we  approached  the  little  river  Koak,  we 
were  greeted  by  a  change  in  the  foliage,  some  hardwood 
ridges  stretched  along  the  upland,  and  along  the  St  John 
rich  intervale  appeared.  We  stopped  at  Mr  Heustie's 
farm,  on  this  intervale,  chiefly  because  he  is  one  of  the 
most  extensive  apple-growers  on  the  river. 

In  the  orchard  of  this  gentleman  were  1550  apple- 
trees,  for  the  most  part  young,  but  in  full  bearing.  The 
fruit  was  in  general  small,  but  of  a  pleasant  agreeable 
flavour.  The  large  delicate  apples  of  the  Hudson  River, 
of  western  New  York,  and  of  the  Ohio  River,  are  not  to 
be  expected,  I  suppose,  in  New  Brunswick,  though  the 
summers  are  hot  enough  ;  yet  fruit  of  good  quality  may 
evidently  be  raised,  and  the  cultivation  for  home  con- 
sumption carried  on,  with  a  profit. 

It  is  probable,  I  think,  that  the  great  heat  of  the  sun 
is  in  reality  a  chief  cause  of  the  smallness  of  the  fruit, 
hastening  the  ripening  process  before  the  apple  has  had 
time  to  swell.  Its  scorching  efiect  was  seen  upon  the 
fallen  fruit,  which  was  dried  and  altered,  as  if  by  artificial 


86 


MAPLE  HONEY. 


heat,  on  the  side  which  had  heen  exposed  to  its  rays. 
The  ten  o'clock  sun  has  the  effect  also  of  scorching  the 
young  trees,  burning  a  stripe  all  the  way  down  the  stem, 
and  finally  killing  them.  The  preventive  is  to  wind  a 
straw  rope  round  the  stem,  and  io  let  all  the  branches 
grow  till  it  has  got  a  rough  bark.  It  is  an  interesting 
fact  that  part  of  a  stem  thus  protected  will  thicken 
faster  than  the  uncovered  portion,  and,  when  the  straw  is 
detached,  will  be  sensibly  of  a  greater  girth. 

For  those  who  are  curious  in  such  recipes,  I  may  state 
that  Mr  Heustie  kills  caterpillars  on  his  apple-trees  by 
boring  a  hole  half-way  through  the  stem,  filling  with 
sulphur,  and  plugging  it  with  wood.  The  caterpillars 
disappear,  he  says,  in  twenty-four  hours.  For  lice  and 
other  small  vermin,  he  opens  a  piece  of  the  bark,  intro- 
duces a  few  drops  of  turpentine,  and  then  ties  it  up  again. 
Both  remedies  he  pronounced  to  be  infallible. 

I  here  first  used  maple  sugar  to  my  tea-dinner, 
enjoyed  the  luxury  of  maple  syrup  or  honey — which  with 
buckwheat  cakes  is  really  excellent — and  ate  broiled 
salmon  with  apple-sauce.  In  the  little  garden  were 
water  and  musk  melons,  as  well  as  cucumbers  and 
squashes,  without  any  special  treatment  growing  and 
ripening,  as  if  native  to  the  spot. 

After  leaving  Mr  Heustie's,  and  proceeding  some 
miles  over  a  country  stony  still  with  granitic  boulders, 
and  then  over  a  patch  of  grey  conglomerate — an  outlier 
of  the  great  coal  measures — we  turned  to  the  left,  partly 
to  cut  off  a  large  bend  of  the  river,  and  partly  for  the 
purpose  of  passing  through  a  cleared  and  cultivated  tract, 
known  as  the  Scotch  Settlement.  Here  there  was  much 
cleared  land  of  second-rate  quality,  but  I  felt  it  to  be 
impossible  to  form  a  satisfactory  idea  of  its  real  agricul- 
tural value.  The  drought  had  been  so  excessive  that 
every  grass  field  was  burned  up  and  browned,  as  T  had 
seen  them  in  Nova  Scotia.     It  was  so  melancholy  to 


.  !! 


BANKS  OF  THE   KESWICK  RIVER. 


m 


look  upon  the  land  itself,  that  I  scarcely  regretted  my 
inability  to  stop  and  converse  with  the  settlers,  from 
whose  mouths  I  could  only  anticipate  a  lamentation  over 
the  evils  which  the  long  absence  of  rain  had  brought 
upon  them.  The  reader,  however,  must  not  imagine 
that  such  droughts  are  common  in  New  Brunswick. 
Farmers  who  had  been  forty  years  in  the  country  assured 
me,  as  I  have  already  stated,  that  they  had  never  known 
anything  like  the  rainless  spring  and  summer  of  1849. 

Leaving  the  Scotch  Settlement,  we  crossed  the  Mac- 
taquac  River,  and  then  a  ridge  of  land  partially  settled 
which  separates  the  valley  of  the  Mactaquac  from  that 
of  the  Keswick  River.  Along  the  right  bank  of  this 
river,  the  upland  is  of  good  quality  in  many  places.  It 
lies  upon  the  youngest  of  the  slate  rocks  which  occur  in 
this  part  of  the  province.  In  descending  to  the  river,  we 
passed  through  the  first  purely  beech  forest  I  had  yet  seen 
on  ray  tour.  It  was  very  beautiful,  entirely  free  from 
underwood,  and  in  many  places  so  open  that  it  would  be 
easy  to  ride  through  it  on  horseback.  The  soil  of  a 
beech  forest  is  usually  good,  but  it  is  shallow,  resting  on 
a  hard  subsoil,  and  therefore  is  not  regarded  as  of  first- 
rate  quality. 

In  the  bottom  of  the  valley,  and  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Keswick  River,  there  is  much  good  low  intervale  and 
island  land — a  sandy  loam,  light  in  colour  and  easy  to 
work,  in  favourable  seasons  yielding  good  crops,  and 
valued  at  present  at  about  £10  currency  an  acre.  The 
Keswick  passes  through  a  beautiful  and  somewhat  bold 
country.  For  the  last  eight  or  ten  miles  of  its  course,  its 
left  bank  is  skirted  by  an  escarpment  of  grey  sandstone, 
which  here  forms  the  north-western  boundary  of  the  coal- 
field of  New  Brunswick,  and  gives  a  character  both  to 
the  soils  and  to  the  scenery.  Along  the  course  of  this 
river  grants  of  land  were  made,  in  1783,  to  the  disbanded 
soldiers  of  the  New  York  Volunteers  and  Royal  Guides, 


I 

1 


88 


COURSE   FOR  A   NEW  SETTLER. 


and  tbeir  descendants  have  since  spread,  and  cleared 
much  land  towards  the  interior. 

After  baiting  our  horses  on  the  Keswick,  darkness 
soon  overtook  us,  so  that  the  country  became  invisible 
during  the  last  ten  miles  of  my  ride  to  Fredericton,  where 
we  arrived  late  at  night  after  an  absence  of  eight  days. 

On  this  excursion  I  had  seen  many  spots  upon  which  a 
British  farmer,  with  a  little  capital,  could  settle  com- 
fortably, not  with  the  prospect  of  becoming  rich,  but  of 
obtaining  all  necessary  comforts,  and  of  placing  upon 
farms  of  their  own  any  number  of  sons.  But  the  wise 
and  prudent  course  for  a  new  settler  to  pursue  is  to 
devote  a  few  weeks  to  an  examination  of  the  country  in 
person,  to  look  at  it  with  an  agricultural  and  practical 
eye,  to  consult  prudent  persons  long  resident  on  the 
spot  as  to  the  Jidvantages  or  disadvantages  of  the  various 
farms  which  are  to  be  purchased,  and  thus,  with  due 
caution  and  deliberation,  and  after  due  inquiry,  to  come 
to  a  determination.  The  emigrant  and  his  family 
will  then  easily  adapt  themselves  to  their  new  circum- 
stances ;  and,  instead  of  a  temporary  resting-place,  as  so 
many  emigrants  make  of  the  first  place  they  settle  upon, 
they  will  find  at  once  a  permanent  family  freehold  and  a 
happy  home. 

Aug.  24:th. — I  remained  at  Fredericton  only  for  a 
single  day,  during  which  I  visited,  among  others,  the 
farm  of  a  young  improver,  Mr  Reid,  who  was  spending 
his  money  in  making  land,  I  may  call  it,  as  courage- 
ously as  if  he  had  been  an  unencumbered  Inverness  or 
Aberdeenshire  laird.  The  sloping  upland  along  this 
part  of  the  river  is  covered  with  fragments  of  sandstone  ; 
but  when  these  are  removed  from  the  surface,  a  soil 
comparatively  free  from  stones  is  found,  for  a  depth  of 
from  one  to  three  or  four  feet. 

This  is  ascribed  by  some  to  the  fact,  sufficiently  curious 
and  interesting  in  itself,  that  stones  and  other  substances 


,   / 


h 


RISING  OF  STONES  IN  WINTER.        ' 


in  the  soil  have  a  tendency,  during  the  frosts  of  winter, 
to  rise  to  the  surface  from  depths  of  three  or  four  feet. 
The  frost  penetrates  in  many  places  to  three  feet,  and 
sometimes  deeper  in  severe  winters ;  and  it  is  observed 
that  stones  in  this  upper  layer  gradually  come  up  to  day ; 
so  that,  if  a  field  be  perfectly  cleared  of  stones  one  year, 
a  new  crop  will  be  found  on  the  land  in  the  course  of  the 
next  year,  if  the  soil  within  three  feet  contain  any.  The 
stakes  of  fences  are  also  pushed  out  by  the  same  agency ; 
and  this  is  a  source  of  much  trouble  to  the  farmer. 
During  a  visit  to  Russia  some  years  ago,  I  was  told  the 
same  facts  by  a  large  landed  proprietor  and  improver,  as 
being  seen  on  his  estates  in  the  direction  of  Archangel ; 
but  I  had  always  doubted  their  correctness,  until  the 
universal  testimony  of  my  New  Brunswick  friends  put 
them  beyond  a  doubt. 

The  effects  of  the  potato  failure  are  likely  in  this  pro- 
vince to  be  ultimately  as  favourable  to  agricultural 
progress  as  we  hope  they  may  be  in  Ireland.  It  has  led 
to  a  very  considerable  extension  of  the  turnip  culture, 
with  its  attendant  advantages  of  stock-feeding  and 
manure-manufacturing,  and  the  benefits  are  already 
found  so  great,  that  should  the  potato  come  round  again, 
this  green  crop  will  not  on  that  account  be  abandoned. 
The  turnip  thrives  well ;  and  in  the  most  northerly  parts 
of  the  province  I  have  met  with  crops  which  would  not 
have  done  discredit  to  a  Lothian  farmer.  The  climate 
makes  it  necessary,  however,  to  take  them  up  in  Novem- 
ber, and  to  store  them  in  cellars,  where  they  will  be 
readily  accessible  during  the  frosts  and  snows  of  winter. 

August  25th. — Early  in  the  moniing  I  ferried  across 
the  St  John  on  my  way  to  the  Miramichi  River,  in  the 
north-east  of  the  province.  The  road  lay  along  the  right 
bank  of  the  Nashwauk,  though  on  the  upland,  and  at 
some  distance  from  the  river.  The  red  and  white  fire- 
weeds,  Epilobium  coloraturrij  and  Erichtites  hi'eractfoliuSj 


1 


\ 


\ 


t'.i 


90        THE  FIRE-WEED  AND  THE  CANADA  THISTLE. 

covered  as  usual  every  open  space  in  the  woods  over 
which  the  fire  had  run  during  the  previous  year ;  showing 
how  grateful  the  ashes  of  the  burned  trees  and  under- 
wood are  to  the  seeds  of  these  plants  with  which  the  soil 
everywhere  must  abound.  f 

When  land  is  cleared  by  burning  for  agricultural  pur- 
poses, these  plants  cover  the  ground  if  it  is  neglected 
during  the  ensuing  spring ;  but  after  the  land  has  been 
ploughed  they  disappear,  and  the  Canada  thistle  and  the 
Lemp-nettle  come  up,  and  become  troublesome  weeds. 
Everywhere  in  the  provinces,  and  in  New  England,  the 
Canadian  thistle  is  heard  of  as  the  pest  of  the  farm.  It  is 
our  common  creeping-thistle,  Cntcus  arvensis,  or  Circium 
arvensBj  which  has  found  a  most  congenial  climate  in 
North  America.  The  common  spear-thistle  is  a  trouble- 
some weed,  but,  being  a  biennial,  can  be  extirpated  with 
comparatively  little  labour;  but  the  Canada  thistle  is 
perennial,  has  deep  and  wide-spreading  roots,  is  very 
tenacious  of  life,  and  commits  its  seed  annually  to  the 
winds,  and  thus  defies  the  labours  of  individual  farmers. 
Only  a  general  spread  of  cleanly  husbandry  will  extirpate 
it  from  a  district  in  which  it  has  once  established  itself. 
Even  legislation  is  disregarded  by  this  rebellious  plant. 
A  few  yeats  ago  (1847)  the  New  Brunswick  legislature 
passed  an  act,  entitled  "  An  act  to  prevent  the  growth  of 
thistlesj^''  which  was  limited  in  its  application  to  the 
county  of  Gloucester ;  but  the  refractory  weed  has  since 
only  spread  the  more,  and  given  increased  annoyance  even 
in  the  county  the  act  was  intended  especially  to  benefit. 

After  a  couple  of  hours'  drive,  we  made  a  detour  of 
several  miles  for  the  purpose  of  visiting  the  village  of 
Stanley,  one  of  the  principal  settlements  of  the  New 
Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia  Land  Company.  We  were 
hospitably  received  by  Lieut.  Colonel  Hayne,  the  resident 
agent  of  the  company,  who  accompanied  me  over  several 
of  the  farms  and  clearings. 


HEAVY  WHEAT  IN  NEW  BRUNSWICK. 


91 


This  Company,  though  to  its  shareholders  it  has  proved 
a  failure,  has  been  of  considerable  service  to  the  colony, 
and  under  its  present  management,  is  capable  of  being  of 
much  use  to  intending  settlers  from  the  mother  country. 
Incorporated  by  act  of  parliament,  it  bought  550,000 
acres,  from  the  crown  in  this  county  of  York,  and  has 
opened  roads  in  various  directions,  established  a  resident 
clergyman  and  medical  practitioner  at  Stanley,  and  pro- 
moted the  settlement  of  many  respectable  emigrant 
families  in  the  neighbourhood.  Immediately  around  the 
town  of  Stanley,  the  land  is  by  no  means  of  first-rate 
quality,  but  it  produces  25  bushels  of  wheat  an  acre,  and 
200  to  300  bushels  of  potatoes.  The  wheat  is  thin 
skinned ;  averages  64  to  68  lb.  a  bushel ;  68  lb.  is  com- 
mon, and  it  is  said  sometimes  to  weigh  as  much  as  70  lb. 
These  high  weights  of  wheat  have  often  been  given  me 
in  different  parts  of  New  Brunswick.  I  suppose  that  the 
very  hot  summers  dry  the  grain  so  much  as  to  give  it 
superior  density. 

On  one  of  the  farms  I  visited,  I  found  improvements 
proceeding  as  an  Englishman  likes  to  do  his  work — clear- 
ing, stumping,  taking  off  stones,  and  trenching  all  at  one 
operation.  This  no  doubt  makes  the  land  pleasanter  to 
look  upon,  and  gives  it  a  more  civilised  appearance  than 
when  the  stumps  are  left  for  seven  or  eight  years  to 
rot  before  they  are  taken  out.  But  it  costs  £10  cur- 
rency an  acre  to  clear  it  after  this  manner;  so  that, 
granting  this  method  to  be  as  cheap  in  the  long  run,  it  is 
quite  beyond  the  means  of  the  mass  of  new  settlers.  The 
owner  of  this  farm,  himself  a  new  settler,  assured  me  that 
it  was  a  great  mistake  for  a  person  with  a  little  capital  to 
settle  in  the  wilderness,  with  the  view  of  clearing  himself 
a  farm,  when  intervale  land  can  be  bought  for  £10 
an  acre.  I  believe  there  is  much  truth  in  this,  unless 
a  very  favourably  situated  grant  of  good  land  can  be 
obtained.     The  turnips  (Aberdeen  yellows)  were  on  this 


•' <.-^-- 


-.►^ — ^ '  #w-* 


92 


RUNNING  FIRE  IN   THE  FIELDS. 


farm  very  beautiful.     Sown  on  the  19th  of  July,  they 
already  covered  the  ground. 

Two  farms  of  100  acres  each,  30  acres  cleared  on  each, 
and  a  small  house,  were  offered  me  together  for  £100,  or 
£50  for  each.  Another  farm  of  205  acres,  with  120 
cleared,  and  a  really  nice  house  on  it,  was  to  be  had  for 
£750  currency. 

-  The  hop  grows  well  here,  as  I  afterwards  saw  it  in  the 
most  northern  parts  of  the  province.  Though  there  is 
little  local  demand  for  the  produce  of  this  plant,  it  might 
be  cultivated  for  exportation,  and  would  have,  in  the 
English  market,  at  least  an  equal  chance  with  the  hops 
now  imported  in  large  quantities  from  the  United  States. 

It  was  very  striking,  on  one  of  the  farms  I  visited,  to 
see  how  rapidly  fire  was  capable  of  running  along  a  field, 
burning  the  parched  grass,  and  endangering  the  crops. 
Advantage  had  been  taken  of  the  extreme  drought  to 
burn  up  some  stumps,  when,  by  a  sudden  freak  of  the 
wind  I  suppose,  the  fire  took  to  the  grass,  and  spread  so 
fast  towards  a  field  of  oats  that  it  was  necessary  to  turn 
out  all  hands  to  arrest  it  by  throwing  earth  on  the 
advancing  line  of  fire ;  and  it  was  finally  shut  out  only 
by  yoking  the  horses  into  a  plough,  and  hastily  running 
a  furrow  between  the  fire  and  the  oats. 

Returning  from  Stanley  to  the  main  road,  we  passed 
through  some  fine  hardwood  land  upon  the  Company's 
grant,  well  adapted  for  farming.  It  was  like  driving 
through  a  beautiful  green  lane,  the  narrow  road  opened 
by  the  Company  being  for  the  most  part  covered  with 
verdure,  and  the  shade  of  the  lofty  trees  affording  a  grate- 
ful shelter  from  the  mid-day  sun. 

We  came  upon  the  Nashwauk  where  it  ceases  to  be 
navigable,  and  where  the  ancient  Indian  portage  across 
the  country  to  the  south-west  Miramichi  River  commences. 
The  Nashwauk,  as  I  have  already  mentioned,  falls  into  the 
St  John  opposite  to  Frederictpn.    Along  its  banks  there 


' 


A  DISCONTENTED  SCOTCHMAN. 


m 


is  much  excellent  intervale  land  ;  and  for  upwards  of 
twenty  miles  above  its  mouth,  the  cleared  lands  are 
occupied  by  the  descendants  of  old  soldiers  of  the  Black 
Watch,  (42d,)  who  obtained  grants  here  in  1783,  at  the 
end  of  the  American  war.  They  have  among  them  many 
fine  farms,  but  their  clearings  have  as  yet  extended  only 
a  short  distance  into  the  upland. 

Across  the  portage  to  Boistown — about  twenty  miles 
— the  country  is  comparatively  level,  and  the  soil  is  light, 
sandy,  stony,  and  often  poor.  Its  appearance  was  injured 
by  the  excessive  drought,  and  the  real  agricultural 
value  of  the  surface  has  been  lessened  by  the  frequent 
forest-burnings.  At  present  it  is  almost  naked  of  trees, 
and  in  many  places  forms  for  miles  one  continued  fern 
brake. 

After  leaving  the  banks  of  the  Nashwauk,  we  crossed 
some  miles  of  a  bilberry  swamp — in  other  words,  a  bog 
on  w^hich  bilberries  grow.  Half-way,  we  stopped  to  bait ; 
and,  on  indifferent  land,  found,  among  other  settlers,  a 
Mr  Duncan,  a  Scotchman.  His  farm  consists  of  two 
hundred  acres,  for  which  he  paid,  when  he  came  here, 
£100,  ten  acres  being  in  crop.  "  I  have  plenty  to  eat," 
he  said,  "  but  I  would  rather  pay  £4  an  acre  for  land  in 
Aberdeenshire  than  be  here  on  my  own  land.  A  man  who 
would  make  his  living  by  clearing  land,  in  this  country, 
must  work  more  like  a  slave  than  a  farmer." 

Mr  Duncan  had  settled  himself  on  an  unfavoured  spot, 
and  was  naturally  enough  dissatisfied.  And  many  such 
discontented  and  disappointed,  and  therefore  restless  and 
unhappy  people,  are  to  be  found  in  all  the  newly-settled 
countries  of  North  America,  whether  in  the  British  pro- 
vinces or  in  the  United  States. 

Two  things,  indeed,  cannot  be  too  strongly  impressed 
upon  those  who  are  about  to  emigrate.  Ftrst^  That  those 
who  wish  to  get  through  the  world  easily — who  are  not 
prepared  both  for  privations  and  for  very  hard  work — had 


94 


RASPBERRY  HAY. 


far  better  stay  at  home.  America  is  not  a  good  home  for 
idlers.      Second,  That,  if  the  emigrant  has  capital,  he 
ought  to  spend  a  little  time  in  looking  out  for  an  eligible 
settlement  before  he  fixes  on  a  permanent  home.     If  he 
have  no  capital  to  spare,  let  him  go  to  service  for  a  sea- 
son, asking  moderate  wages  till  he  learn  >\'here  he  can 
hope,  with  his  small  means,  most  happily  to  place  himself. 
In  the  wilderness,  on  burned  land,-  besides  the  fire- 
weed,  the  red  wild  raspberry,  Rubus  strtgosus,  springs  up 
in  vast  abundance,  and  especially  on  granite  and  trap- 
pean  soils.    At  Duncan's,  I  found  it  was  the  practice  to 
eat  this  raspberry,  and  store  it  as  hay.     It  is  a  kind  of 
famine  feed ;  but  it  is  very  frequently  mixed  with  the 
hay,  and  the  sheep  are  said  to  prefer  it  to  common  hay. 
On  the  marsh-lands  about  Gagetown,  on  the  St  John, 
the   smooth  swamp  horse-tail,  salt-rush,  or  pipe-rush, 
Equisetum  limosum,  is  largely  cut  for  hay,  as  I  believe  is 
sometimes  done  in  Great   Britain.     On  the  St  John, 
cattle  are  said  to  fatten  upon  this  hay,  and  to  prefer  it  to 
the  best  English  hay.     In  connection  with  this  fact,  I 
may  mention  that  the  field  horse-tail,  Equisetum  arvense^ 
according  to  Professor  Torry,*  is  a  favourite  and  nutri- 
tious food  for  horses  towards  the  passes  of  the  Eocky 
Mountains ;  though  in  Great  Britain  it  is  not  only  con- 
sidered prejudicial  to  the  land — or  rather  a  sign  of  some- 
thing to  be  cured  in  the  land — but  as  injurious  to  cattle, 
which  occasionally  eat  it.f 

The  flowed  intervale  lands  abound  also  in  the  sensitive 
fern,  Onoclea  sensihilis.  Upon  the  Keswick  River,  where 
I  crossed  it  in  returning  from  Woodstock,  it  seemed 
literally  to  cover  the  soil.  It  is  cut  along  with  the  grass, 
and  must  often  form  a  considerable  proportion  of  the 
meadow  hay. 

At  the  end  of  the  portage  we  descended  a  steep  hill  to 


Botany  of  New  York,  vol.ii.  p.  481. 


+  Hooker. 


P 


GLOOM  OP  THE  BURNED  LAND. 


m 


Boistown,  on  the  South-west  Miramichl  River,  which 
runs  eastward  and  falls  into  Miramichl  Bay,  an  inlet  of 
the  Gulf  of  St  Lawrence.  This  place  was  formerly  the 
seat  of  a  thriving  lumber-trade,  which  has  now  almost 
ceased,  owing  to  the  failure  of  the  principal  adventurer 
by  whom  it  was  carried  on.  A  scattering  of  the  popu- 
lation has  in  consequence  taken  place,  and  many  indi- 
vidual losses  and  social  derangements  have  been  occa- 
sioned, which  it  will  require  a  considerable  time  to  repair 
and  adjust.  Thirteen  miles  farther  brought  us  to  Nel- 
son's, through  virgin  forests  of  pine  growing  on  a  poor 
sandy  soil.  The  straw  of  the  grain  crops  was  every- 
where short,  and  the  rain  had  not  reached  the  roots  of 
the  potatoes  since  they  were  planted.  It  was  no  season 
forjudging  fairly  of  the  capabilities  of  the  soil. 

August  2Qth. — After  breakfast,  we  left  Nelson's  for 
Chatham.  The  country  continued  poor,  gravelly,  sandy, 
or  stony,  with  occasional  boulders,  sometimes  of  granite, 
but  chiefly  of  the  grey  sandstone  of  the  coal  measures, 
which  extend  across  the  province  from  the  St  John  at 
Fredericton  to  the  Gulf  of  St  Lawrence. 

Throughout  the  whole  of  this  day's  journey,  the  effects 
of  the  dreadful  fire  of  1825  were  visible  in  the  blackened 
stems  of  the  tall  upright  dead  trees,  which  still  stood 
undecayed,  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see,  over  the  gloomy 
hills  and  flats.  On  newly  burned  land  the  purple  EpHo- 
bium  waved  its  graceful  leaves  and  purple  flowers  around 
the  blackened  trunks,  and  concealed  in  beauty  the 
scorched  underwood  and  fallen  branches.  But  on  these 
old  burned  lands  the  desolation  was  more  complete,  and 
a  more  sullen  gloom  still  rested  over  the  doomed  surface. 
The  substance  of  the  soil  is  gone,  it  is  said,  where  the 
burning  has  been  too  severe.  The  vegetable  matter,  1 
suppose,  is  consumed ;  and  this,  where  no  living  trees  are 
shedding  their  annual  leaves,  it  must  take  many  years  to 
restore.     Many  striking  facts  were  told  us  regarding  this 


I'' 


I 

Hi 


■11 


96 


DANGER  OF  ORNAMENTAL  TREES. 


I: 


great  fire,  especially  as  to  the  fearful  rapidity  with  which 
it  hurried  on,  with  the  roar  of  a  great  sea,  before  the 
sweeping  hurricane  which  propelled  it.  On  our  way  we 
saw  fires  burning  in  the  woods  in  many  places,  which,  in 
this  dry  season,  only  required  a  little  wind  to  spread  in 
one  blaze  over  the  whole  forest.  At  one  spot,  where  the 
road  ran  along  the  edge  of  the  forest,  separating  it  from 
the  cleared  land,  which  lay  between  the  road  and  the 
river,  we  passed  six  or  eight  men  employed  in  watching 
for  the  fall  of  sparks,  and  extinguishing  any  which  might 
come  over  from  the  burning  woods,  to  the  imminent 
danger  of  their  crops. 

In  a  country  like  this,  one  learns  to  look  upon  trees  in 
a  new  light.  Not  only  are  they  an  obstacle  to  cultiva- 
tion, which  must  therefore  be  cut  down  and  burnt ;  but,  so 
long  as  natural  woods  are  near,  it  is  dangerous  to  leave 
any  about  the  dwelling-house  for  shelter  or  ornament. 
During  this  summer's  tour,  I  was  shown  places  where  the 
spreading  of  fire  from  the  forest  to  a  few  ornamental 
trees  had  caused  the  destruction  of  the  whole  farm  build- 
ings, to  the  almost  total  ruin  of  the  proprietor.  Thus  a 
reason  appears  for  the  nakedness  which  an  Englishman 
almost  feels  when  in  the  midst  of  a  large  clearing.  An 
unsheltered  house  appears,  while  the  stumps  of  magnifi- 
cent trees  all  around  show  how  well  it  might  have  been 
protected  from  wind  and  sun. 

Except  upon  the  immediate  banks  of  the  river,  there 
are  few  settlements  along  this  road ;  and,  in  general,  the 
upland  is  very  poor  until  we  descend  to  within  twenty  or 
thirty  miles  of  the  mouth  of  the  Miramichi.  About  a 
dozen  miles  from  Boistown,  I  had  a  conversation  with  a 
small  farmer,  Irish  by  birth,  but  resident  from  his  infancy 
in  this  country.  He  had  been  in  his  farm  only  three 
years.  By  hiring  himself  as  a  working  lumberer,  he  had 
saved  £80,  and  with  this  he  bought  his  present  farm. 
It  contains  two  hundred  acres,  and  had  ten  acres  cleared 


come  roui 


PKOCEEDINQS  OP  THE   LUMBEKEK.  'if 

upon  it,  and  a  small  log-house,  but  no  barn.  He  has 
built  a  barn  and  added  to  his  clearing,  and  if  seasons 
come  round,  he  should  do  well. 

Wo  passed  houses  and  clearings,  however,  which  were 
altogether  deserted.  This  was  partly  owing  to  the  fail- 
ures in  the  crops,  which  have  ruined  so  many  of  all  classes 
in  Ireland  as  well  as  here  ;  partly  to  the  failure  of  the 
lumber-trade,  and  to  the  debts  and  mortgages  in  which 
the  small  farmers,  by  engaging  in  this  trade,  had  gradu- 
ally become  involved. 

A  stranger  does  not  readily  comprehend  how  a  depres- 
sion in  the  lumber-trade  should  seriously  affect  the  inte- 
rests of  the  rural  population  in  any  other  way  than  in 
lessening  the  demand  for  produce,  and  in  lowering  prices. 
And  it  was  not  till  I  had  been  longer  in  the  country,  and 
conversed  with  many  persons  on  the  subject,  that  I  was 
enabled  clearly  to  separate,  in  my  own  mind,  the  evils 
which  this  trade  had  brought  upon  the  rural  population 
from  those  which  were  necessarily  attendant  upon  the 
calling  of  a  farmer. 

In  lumbering,  a  man  goes  into  the  woods  in  winter, 
cuts  down  trees,  and  hauls  them  to  a  brook,  down  which, 
when  the  spring  freshets  come,  he  can  float  them  to  the 
main  river,  and  then  to  the  saw-mills  of  the  merchant  to 
whom  he  sells  them.  If  a  man  does  this  upon  his  own 
farm,  or  at  no  great  distance  from  it,  and  by  the  aid  of 
his  own  family  only,  all  he  gets  for  his  wood  is  pure 
gain — if,  in  the  mean  time,  he  has  been  living  on  the 
produce  of  his  own  farm. 

But  if  he  goes  to  a  distance  from  his  own  farm,  and 
has  been  obliged  to  hire  labourers,  or  has  done  so  with 
the  view  of  enlarging  his  operations,  he  must  apply  to 
the  merchant  for  an  advance  of  stores  adequate  to  the 
winter's  consumption.  The  cost  of  these  stores,  and  the 
wages  of  his  men,  are  deducted  from  the  value  of  the 
VOL.  I.  G 


98     HOW   LUMDERINO    INTERFERES   WITH   FARMING. 


If  f 


I 


3 


wood  he  has  obtained ;  and  if  the  price  of  wood  bo  not 
very  low,  he  may  still  have  a  handsome  surplus. 

Such  circumstances  lure  him  on  till  an  unfavourable 
winter  comes,  and  ho  is  not  successful  in  cutting  as  good 
lumber,  or  in  as  large  a  quantity  as  usual,  or  in  hauling 
it  to  the  floating  place  ;  or  a  very  late  spring,  or  very 
shallow  water,  prevents  him  from  getting  it  to  market. 
Then  his  debt  to  the  merchant  for  stores,  and  for  money 
to  pay  his  men,  must  stand  over  to  another  year ;  and  his 
farm  is  mortgaged  as  security  for  the  payment. 

Meanwhile  this  farm  has  been  more  or  less  neglected, 
and  has  been  every  year  growing  less  produce.  His 
wood  must  be  floated  in  spring,  when  his  crops  ought  to 
be  put  into  the  ground.  He  has  been  absent  in  winter, 
when  new  land  might  have  been  cleared.  His  mind 
is  occupied  with  other  cares :  he  does  not  settle  to  his 
agricultural  pursuits,  and  they  are  therefore  badly  con- 
ducted, even  when  he  is  at  home  to  superintend  them. 
And,  lastly,  while  living  in  the  woods,  both  employer  and 
employed  live  on  the  most  expensive  food.  They  scorn 
anything  but  the  fattest  pork  from  the  United  States,  and 
the  finest  Genessee  flour.  The  more  homely  food,  there- 
fore, which  their  own  farms  produce,  becomes  distasteful 
to  them ;  and  thus  expensive  and  sometimes  immoral 
habits  are  introduced  into  their  families,  which  cause 
more  frequent  demands  upon  the  merchant,  and  a  con- 
sequent yearly  increase  of  the  unpaid  bills. 

In  such  a  state  of  things,  the  foreclosing  of  mort- 
gages, the  sale  of  farms,  and  the  emigration  of  ruined 
families,  must  necessarily  be  of  occasional  occurrence. 
But  if  the  price  of  lumber  fall  very  much  at  any  period, 
they  must  become  more  frequent ;  or,  if  a  merchant  who 
holds  many  of  these  mortgages  himself  fails,  a  common 
ruin  will  involve  all.  Both  of  these  evils  have  at  once 
befallen  the  lumbciing  farmers  on  the  Miramichi,  and 
much  distress  has  been  the  result.    To  this  cause  was 


M   I' 


FARMERS  ALWAYS   DO   WELL   HFRK. 


Ml 


owing  the  abandonment  of  farms  by  persons  who,  leaving 
both  debts  and  mortgages  behind,  and  taking  with  {\mn 
any  capital  they  could  secure,  had  moved  wei»t  to  lumber 
on  the  Aroostook,  or  to  begin  life  anew  in  the  far  off 
Wisconsin. 

I  have  been  thus  detailed  in  my  observations  upon 
this  subject,  because  I  felt  myself  inclined  to  be  unjust 
in  my  judgment  as  to  the  agricultural  capabilities  of  a 
district  from  which  so  many  were  emigrating,  and  in 
which  land  was  so  little  esteemed  that  its  owners 
appeared  to  be  abandoning  it,  with  all  their  improve- 
ments, merely  because  it  refused  to  support  their  fami- 
lies. A  knowledge  of  all  the  circumstances,  however, 
satisfactorily  showed  that  not  the  land,  but  the  haste  of 
its  owners  to  become  rich,  and  their  discontent  with  the 
slow  but  certain  gains  of  agriculture,  were  the  causes  of 
the  distress  from  which  so  many  of  the  farmers  were 
suffering. 

With  the  view  of  obtaining  a  more  general  body  of 
testimony  in  regard  to  the  agricultural  condition  of  New 
Brunswick,  I  was  enabled,  through  the  kind  co-opera- 
tion of  the  Provincial  Government,  to  circulate  a  set  of 
queries  among  the  owners  of  the  land  in  every  county 
of  the  province.  One  of  these  queries  referred  to  the 
profits  of  pure  farming ;  and  the  numerous  answers  I 
received  were  unauimous  in  declaring — "  That^  in  every 
part  of  the  province^  those  who  for  a  series  of  years  had 
confined  their  attention  to  farming  alone,  had  all,  without 
exception,  done  well^  That  prosperity,  therefore,  may 
attend  the  new  settler,  or  may  return  to  the  older 
farmers  of  the  province,  it  is  necessary  only  that  they 
confine  their  attention  solely  to  the  business  of  their 
farms. 

On  the  Miramichi,  at  present,  owing  to  failures  and 
the  foreclosing  of  mortgages,  land  is  cheaper  than  it  has 
been  for  many  years.     At  Bergoris,  twenty  miles  from 


100     THE  OAT  TAKING  THE  PLACE  OF  BUCKWHEAT. 

Boistown,  where  we  stopped  to  bait,  the  landlord  told  me 
of  a  farm  on  the  river,  containing  1500  acres,  having  60 
cleared — and  of  these  20  were  intervale  land,  producing 
30  to  35  tons  of  hay  per  acre — which  could  be  obtained 
for  £150  to  £200.  Five  years  ago  this  farm  would 
have  brought  £400  or  £500. 

A  few  miles  farther  on,  after  passing  the  mouth  of  the 
Kenous  river,  which  comes  in  from  the  left,  the  land 
became  of  better  quality.  Though  we  were  still  upon 
sandstones  of  the  coal  measures,  and  the  surface  stones 
were  chiefly  sandstone  boulders,  sometimes  mixed  with 
frequent  masses  of  granite,  yet  the  soil  was  more 
tenacious  and  clayey ;  and  good  crops  of  wheat  and 
oats  were  ripening  upon  many  of  the  wayside  farms  we 
passed. 

On  the  Miramichi  we  looked  in  vain  for  the  frequent 
fields  of  buckwheat,  which  we  had  seen  upon  the  St 
John.  The  oat  here  takes  its  place,  and  is  gradually 
assuming  an  important  place  as  an  article  of  ordinary 
diet  among  the  people.  Until  lately,  the  humblest  people 
refused  to  eat  anything  but  the  finest  flour.  They  even 
thought  they  could  not  live  upon  anything  else.  But 
the  failure  of  home  wheat,  and  the  want  of  money 
to  buy  that  imported  from  Canada  or  the  United  States, 
has  had  the  salutary  effect  of  compelling  the  people  to 
try  the  virtues  of  their  own  excellent  oats ;  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  they  will  every  year  become  more  and  more 
attached  to  this  most  nutritive  grain.  The  Provincial 
Legislature  have  most  judiciously  aided  this  alteration 
by  offering  bounties  for  the  erection  of  oat-meal  mills 
throughout  the  province,  the  want  of  which  had  hitherto 
been  almost  a  complete  bar  to  the  use  of  the  oat  as 
human  food — especially  in  the  newly  settled  districts, 
where  the  need  was  most  urgent,  and  the  want  most 
felt.  In  1847  the  sum  of  £500  was  paid  out  of  the 
Provincial  Treasury  for  this  purpose  ;  and  as  such  milJs 


LOWER  PART  OF  THE  RIVER. 


101 


are  not  costly,  the  wants  of  many  districts  have  been 
ah'cady  fully  supplied. 

About  sunset  we  reached  the  ferry  across  the  north- 
west, where  it  joins  the  main  or  south-west  Miramichi 
river,  and  travelled  the  remaining  ten  miles  to  Douglas 
chiefly  in  the  dark.  The  land  is  generally  of  better 
quality  along  this  lower  part  of  the  river,  is  more 
extensively  cleared,  and  more  skilfully  cultivated.  New- 
castle, a  considerable  village  four  miles  below  the  junc- 
tion of  the  north-west  river,  and  Douglas,  a  town  six 
miles  farther  down,  are  supported  in  part  by  their 
traffic  with  the  country  farmers,  but  chiefly  by  the 
lumber-trade,  of  which  the  mouth  of  the  Miramichi  has 
long  been  an  important  centre. 

Soon  after  leaving  Newcastle,  we  met  with  an  accident 
by  which  the  pole  of  our  carriage  was  broken — a  circum- 
stance of  the  more  importance  as  we  had  still  some  hills 
to  descend  before  we  could  reach  Douglas. 

But  my  travelling  companion,  Mr  Brown,  was  equal 
to  any  emergency.  A  spare  rope,  and  a  couple  of  stakes 
from  the  fence,  in  his  hands  soon  placed  us  again  in 
marching  order;  so  that,  with  a  little  care,  and  by 
walking  on  foot  down  the  dark  slopes,  we  reached 
Douglastown  in  safety  before  midnight. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Douglastown.-— Great  boat. — Value  of  farms. — Mode  of  reclaiming  forest 
land.—  Kxpcnso  of  clearing  soon  repaid. — Plague  of  grasshoppern,  in 
Now  Brunswick  and  New  England.  —  Legislative  grants  for  the  pro- 
motion of  agriculture.  —  Average  produce,  prices  and  wages  in  Nor- 
thumbcrland  county.  —  Town  of  Chatham.  —  Golden  rod,  a  trouble- 
some weed. — North  American  oaks.— European  weeds  on  the  cleared 
lands.  —  History  of  an  Annandale  settlor.  —  Bush-bean. — Provincial 
encouragement  to  elementary  and  gi-ammar  schools.  — Bay-du-  Vin 
schoolmaster. — Richibucto. — Buctouche  river. — Sweet  fern  soils  — 
Patience  and  contentment  of  the  French  settlers,  and  rcstlossness  of 
the  Anglo-Saxons. — Shediac,  famed  for  its  oysters. — The  Bond-Bore  of 

;  the  river  Petitcodiac. — Height  of  high  water  above  that  of  the  Bay. — 
Country  between  the  Bend  and  the  city  of  St  John. — Case  of  Mr 
Nixon,  and  bis  opinion  of  Now  Brunswick  as  a  poor  man's  country. — 
Use  of  river  mud  as  an  improver  of  the  soil.  —  Greater  industry 
among  new  settlors  than  among  the  native-born. — Bligliting  of  buck- 
wheat.— Burned  Bridge. — Beauty  of  Sussex  Vale. — Mr  Evanson's  home 
farm,  its  value  and  produce. — Mr  Alton's  farm. — Kent  and  course  of 
cropp  ing.  —  Hampton,  and  its  conglomerate  soils.  —  Fine-looking 
yeomen  of  Now  Brunswick. — Price  of  farms  around  Hampton. — A 
discontented  Irishman. — ]3ykcd  marshes  of  St  John  and  the  Atlantic 
border.  —  Farms  around  St  Jolm,  their  quality  and  value.  —  Rate  of 
wages  for  agricultural  labour  in  the  several  counties  of  the  province. 

August  27. — Yesterday  and  to-day  have  been  exces- 
sively hot.  We  found  it  so  as  we  travelled  down  the 
river  in  our  open  carriage,  but  we  liad  no  means  of  ascer- 
taining the  temperature.  At  Douglastown,  I  am  informed 
that  the  thermometer  has  frequently  stood  during  the 
past  week  as  high  as  95°  Fahr.  in  the  shade. 

On  this,  and  a  subsequent  visit  to  the  Miramichi,  I  was 
much  indebted  to  the  hospitality  of  Mr  llankine,  one  of 


MR  porter's  FARMSc 


103 


the  oldest  resident  merchants,  and  the  representative  of  a 
wealthy  firm  long  connected  with  the  North  American 
colonial  trade.  I  visited  with  him  to-day  the  farm  of 
Mr  John  Porter,  on  which  I  found  good  land,  well  cul- 
tivated, with  fair  crops  of  wheat  and  oats,  and  a  field  of 
excellent  turnips,  (Aberdeen  yellows.)  The  wheat 
averages  20  bushels  per  acre,  of  60  to  65  lb.,  and  the 
oats  40  bushels  of  37  to  40  lb.  On  the  upland,  where 
the  soil  is  heavier,  the  oats  weigh  as  high  as  48  lb. 

This  farm  is  mostly  flat  land — an  extension  of  the 
high  intervale  on  which  the  town  stands.  It  consists  of 
80  acres,  of  which  60  are  cleared,  and  is  worth  £400, 
but  would  at  present  sell  for  XfiOO.  He  assured  me  that, 
though  he  has  a  large  family,  he  could  make  a  living  off 
this  farm. 

Above  this,  the  same  gentleman  possesses  another  farm 
on  the  upland.  It  is  stronger  land,  and  produces  better 
oats ;  but  it  is  more  difficult  to  work,  and  is  later  in 
spring.  It  consists  of  150  acres,  of  which  50  are  cleared, 
yields  15  tons  of  hay,  lets  for  a  money-rent  of  £33,  and 
is  valued  at  iJ400,  all  currency.*  Ten  years  ago,  this 
farm  was  let  for  £50.  The  tenants  have  never  done 
anything  else  but  farm,  and  they  have  been  enabled  to 
support  their  families  and  pay  their  rents  —  though,  as  I 
have  already  remarked,  the  renting  of  farms  is  not  a 
popular  or  much  practised  mode  in  this  country.  It  is 
an  excellent  plan,  however,  for  a  new  beginner,  who 
wishes  to  know  something  of  the  country  before  he  fixes 
upon  a  spot  for  his  permanent  residence.  Much  of  the 
moving,  and  of  the  want  of  local  attachment  which  is 
seen  in  North  America,  is  probably  to  be  ascribed  to  the 
hasty  settlement  which  circumstances  compel  so  many 
emigrants  to  make  on  their  arrival  in  America. 

The  course  of  cropping  adopted  by  a  skilful  man  like 


*  £20  bterliug  make  £25  provincial  cuiicucy. 


104 


TJIEATMENT  OF  NEWLY   CLEARED  LAND. 


Mr  Porter,  on  clearing  new  land  from  the  forest,  will 
give  the  reader  an  idea  of  the  general  character  of  the 
treatment  to  which  less  prudent  men  subject  their  land. 
He  cuts  down  the  wood  and  burns  it,  then  takes  a  crop 
of  potatoes,  followed  by  one  of  wheat  with  grass  seeds. 
Nine  successive  crops  of  hay  follow  in  as  many  years ; 
after  which  the  stumps  are  taken  up,  the  land  is  ploughed, 
a  crop  of  wheat  is  taken ;  it  is  then  manured  for  the  first 
time,  or  limed,  and  laid  down  again  for  a  similar  succes- 
sion of  crops  of  hay.  This  treatment  is  hard  enough ; 
but  the  unskilful  man,  after  burning  and  spreading  the 
ashes,  takes  two  or  three  or  more  crops  of  grain,  leaves 
it  to  sow  itself  with  grass,  then  cuts  hay  as  long  as  it 
bears  a  crop  which  is  worth  the  cutting — after  all  which 
he  either  stumps  and  ploughs  it,  or  leaves  it  to  run  again 
into  the  wilderness  state. 

In  clearing  land  in  this  district,  it  is  calculated  that  the 
first  three  crops,  which  are  merely  harrowed  in,  will  pay 
all  the  expense  of  cutting  the  timber,  burning,  and  culti- 
vating. If  the  settler  then  abandon  it,  he  is  no  loser : 
everything  he  cuts  off  it  afterwards  is  gain,  or  any  sum  for 
which  he  can  sell  his  cleared  land.  This  is  a  great  induce- 
ment to  the  exhausting  system,  which  clears  annually  new 
land  for  grain,  cuts  for  hay  all  which  the  old  cropped  land 
will  yield,  till  it  is  again  overrun  with  a  young  growth 
of  wood,  and  neither  saves,  collects,  nor  values  manure. 

This  system  is  barbarous,  reprehensible,  and  wasteful 
to  the  country — and  yet  it  is  probably  the  method  which 
yields  a  ready  sustenance  to  the  settler's  family  at  the 
smallest  expense  of  mental  and  bodily  labour.  Our  con- 
demnation of  the  pioneers  of  civilisation  in  a  new  country 
ought  not,  therefore,  to  be  too  severe  or  indiscriminate. 
With  all  our  skill,  we  English  farmers  and  teachers  of 
agricultural  science  should,  in  the  same  circumstances, 
probably  do  just  the  same,  so  long  as  land  was  plenty, 
labour  scarce  and  dear,  markets  few  and  distant,  and 


PLAGUE  OF  GRASSHOPPERS. 


105 


prices  of  produce  low.  As  population  increases,  a  higher 
class  will  come  in,  will  purchase  the  exhausted  farms,  and 
for  their  skill  and  manure  will  obtain  from  the  soil  new 
returns,  as  large,  and  perhaps  as  profitable  as  those  which 
rewarded  the  men  who  first  penetrated  the  bush.  Or  if 
such  men  do  not  come  in,  and  the  land  still  continues  in 
the  hands  of  the  original  clearers,  or  their  sons,  the  good 
of  the  country  will  demand  that  steps  should  be  taken 
to  instruct  and  enlighten  them  in  regard  to  the  principles 
of  agriculture,  and  by  degrees  to  wean  them  from  an 
agricultural  routine  which  is  no  longer  either  the  most 
profitable  to  the  individual,  or  adapted  to  the  altered 
circumstances  of  the  country. 

In  walking  over  Mr  Porter's  farm,  my  attention  was 
drawn  to  the  vast  number  of  grasshoppers  which  were 
jumping  about,  not  only  in  his  grass,  but  in  his  turnip 
fields.  I  had  observed  them  previously  in  considerable 
numbers  at  various  places  on  the  St  John  Eiver,  but  here 
the  land  seemed  almost  alive  with  them.  They  appear 
during  the  hot  weather  of  midsummer  and  autumn,  and 
attack  the  turnip  crops  as  well  as  the  grass,  sometimes 
entirely  stripping  them  of  their  leaves.  If  the  young 
turnips  are  not  sufiiciently  forward  by  the  middle  or  end 
of  July,  when  the  grasshoppers  begin  to  swarm,  they  are 
sometimes  entirely  destroyed.  This  is  a  pest  of  which 
our  British  turnip-growers,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  have 
no  cause  to  complain. 

In  New  England,  five  or  six  different  grasshoppers, 
besides  as  many  species  of  locust,  appear  in  their  warm 
summers.  In  Massachusetts,  the  grass  in  the  meadows 
and  moist  fields  is  filled  with  myriads  of  small  grass- 
hoppers, of  a  light  green  colour,  which  do  much  injury 
to  the  grass.  But,  in  New  England,  grasshoppers 
are  not  generally  distinguished  from  the  small  varieties 
of  locusts  which  are  common  in  that  country.  One  of 
these,  the  small  red-legged  locust,  about  an  inch   in 


106 


ENCOURAGEMENT  OP  AGRICULTURE. 


length,  Infests  the  salt  marshes  in  such  numbers  as  almost 
entirely  to  consume  the  grass;  and  when  the  scanty 
crop  of  hay  is  gathered,  it  is  so  tainted  with  the  putres- 
cent bodies  of  the  dead  locusts  contained  in  it  that  it  is 
rejected  by  cattle  and  horses.*  It  is  some  small  return 
for  their  ravages  that  the  bodies  of  these  creatures 
manure  the  fields  they  have  infested,  and  that  poultry 
thrive  upon  them.  Young  turkeys,  in  the  summer,  live 
almost  entirely  upon  these  grasshoppers  in  parts  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  become  fat. 

The  Northumberland  Agricultural  Society,  which  has 
its  headquarters  at  Douglas,  has  hitherto  been  the  most 
influential  in  the  province,  and  has  received  the  largest 
share  of  the  legislative  grant  for  the  encouragement  of 
agriculture.  A  method  of  promoting  improvement 
among  the  rural  population,  which  is  common  to  the 
provincial  and  to  the  New  England  state  legislatures,  is 
to  give  from  the  public  funds  to  every  society  a  sum  of 
money,  bearing  a  fixed  proportion  to  the  amount  raised 
among  its  own  members.  In  New  Brunswick,  for  every 
pound  subscribed  in  a  district  for  the  promotion  of  agri- 
culture, the  Legislature  formerly  gave  £2,  and  now  give 
as  much  as  £3,  from  the  Provincial  Treasury,  thus 
stimulating  at  once  and  rewarding  the  local  subscribers. 
For  this  purpose,  £6150  were  voted  by  the  New  Bruns- 
wick Legislature  in  1 848. 

In  this  district  I  found  some  of  the  best  farming  and 
best  farmers  in  the  province,  and  some  of  the  warmest 
friends  of  agricultural  improvement.  As  there  are  at 
present  many  farms  to  be  disposed  of  upon  the  Miramichi 
Kiver,  for  which  persons  who  know  something  of  agricul- 
ture are  eagerly  desired  from  the  Old  Country,  I 
shall  insert  the  average  produce,  price,  and  weight  per 
bushel,  of  the  usually  cultivated  crops  in  the  county  of 

*  Habris's  Insects  of  Massachusetts  Injurious  to  Agiiculture,  p.  136. 


AVERAGE  PRODUCE,  PRICES,  AND  WAGES.         107 

Northumberland,  which  embraces  most  of  the  good  land 
on  the  Miramichi  and  its  tributary  waters. 


Wheat, 
Barley, 
Oats, 

Average  produce  Average  price 
per  acre.            per  busheL 

17             7s.  6d. 
32             6s.  3d. 
32             2s.  Id. 

Average  weight 
per  bushel. 

62  pounds. 
54      ... 
38      ... 

Buckwheat, 

40             5s. 

45      ... 

Maize, 

60             4s.  6d. 

58      ... 

Potatoes, 

200             Is.  lOd. 

Turnips, 
Hay, 

350             Is.  4d. 
2  tons. 

The  average  price  of  cheese  is  5^d.  a  pound,  and  of 
butter  9d.  The  average  wages  paid  for  agricultural 
labour  are,  in  summer,  from  50s.  to  GOs.  a  month,  or,  by 
the  whole  year,  £27,  lOs.  currency,  in  addition  to  board, 
washing,  and  lodging.  Day-labourers  receive  from  one- 
half  to  three-quarters  of  a  dollar,  with  provisions. 

After  a  hasty  survey  of  the  neighbourhood  of  Douglas, 
we  drove  down  to  the  river,  and  crossed  to  the  town  of 
Chatham,  on  the  right  bank.  Near  the  ferry  we  found 
a  large  encampment  of  Indians,  who  are  about  two  hun- 
dred strong,  on  the  Miramichi  River,  and  own  reserves  of 
about  22,000  acres,  some  of  which  consist  of  excellent 
land.  It  was  amusing  to  see  the  little  papooses,  only  a 
few  weeks  old,  swaddled  up  tight,  tied  fast  to  a  bit  of 
board,  and  set  on  end  against  the  outside  of  the  wigwams, 
apparently  unheeded  by  anybody.  No  movement  was 
made  by  any  of  the  females,  nor  a  sound  uttered  by  the 
infant,  when  I  took  up  one  of  them  and  affected  to  carry 
it  off  with  me  to  the  boat. 

The  town  of  Chatham  is  about  equal  in  size  to  Douglas, 
and,  like  it,  is  dependent  partly  upon  the  lumber-trade 
and  partly  upon  the  agricultural  traffic.  On  this  occa- 
sion I  merely  drove  through  it  with  the  view  of  reaching 
Richibucto,  a  distance  of  forty  miles  south,  before  night- 
fall. 


108 


GOLDEN   ROD,  A  TROUBLESOME   WEED. 


hi 


Half-an-hoiir  brought  us  to  the  Napan  River,  a  stream 
which  widens  as  it  descends,  and  falls  into  Miramichi  Bay. 
On  this  river  there  is  much  good  strong  land,  a  stiff  clay, 
the  first  I  had  seen  in  the  settlement,  for  the  improve- 
ment of  which  I  was  satisfied,  notwithstanding  the 
drought — which  even  here  had  reduced  the  hay-crop  to 
one-third  of  its  usual  amount — that  the  system  of  tho- 
rough drainage  might,  even  in  this  climate,  be  unhesi- 
tatingly recommended.  This  clay  is  specially  infected 
with  two  species  of  golden  rod,  {Solidapo  canadensis 
and  S.  altissima,)  which  are  troublesome  weeds,  and  the 
former  especially  difficult  to  extirpate. 

Neither  of  these  species  of  golden  rod  is  known  as  a 
weed  in  Europe.  The  only  European  species  is  the 
Solidago  virgo  aurea,  which  is  also  a  native  of  America. 
It  is  not  known  as  yet  how  many  species  of  golden  rod  are 
to  be  found  in  New  Brunswick ;  but  in  the  state  of  New 
York  no  less  than  twenty-two  species  are  known.  It  is 
very  interesting  to  the  botanist  and  physiologist  to  observe 
such  differences  in  the  flora  of  countries  so  closely  allied 
as  Great  Britain  and  Northern  America  now  aye ;  but,  as 
practical  indications  of  the  qualities  of  soils,  this  new 
flora  is  a  source  of  difficulty  to  the  visitor  or  settler  from 
the  Old  Country,  who  is  accustomed  from  early  observa- 
tion to  connect  in  his  mind  the  qualities  of  a  soil  with 
the  weeds  which  grow  upon  it.  It  is  a  matter  of  regret 
that  botanical  collectors  do  not  describe  more  particularly 
both  the  kind  of  soil  on  which  plants  usually  occur — 
which,  when  troublesome  weeds,  they  infest — and  the  geo- 
logical formations  on  which  they  are  most  frequently  found. 
A  practical  value  would  thus  be  given  to  botanical  descrip- 
tions, which  hitherto  they  have  seldom  possessed. 

To  the  English  traveller,  who  is  less  interested  about 
the  indications  of  the  humbler  vegetable  tribes,  the 
numerous  new  species  of  familiar  kinds  of  trees  he  meets 
with  in  Northern  America  are  more  striking.     Thus  in 


EUROPEAN   PLANTS  IN  AMEKICA. 


109 


Great  Britain,  and  in  central  Europe  generally,  there 
are  seen  only  two  kinds  of  oak,  the  common  British  and 
the  sessile-fruited  oak,  Quercus  rohur  and  Q.  sessilfflora. 
In  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick  he  does  not  find 
these  oak  trees,  but  in  their  stead  two  others,  the  red  and 
grey  oaks,  Q.  rubra  and  Q.  horealis.  If  he  goes  south, 
the  number  of  species  increases.  In  Massachusetts  he 
already  meets  with  eleven,  and  in  New  York  fifteen 
species  of  oak,  among  which  the  northern  or  grey  oak  is 
not  included.  In  the  whole  United  States,  no  less  than 
forty  species  of  oak  are  already  known. 

But  probably  the  most  generally  interesting  fact  in 
regard  to  American  plants  is  the  influence  which  the 
introduction  of  European  races  and  manners,  and  the 
frequency  of  intercourse  with  European  countries,  is  said 
to  have  had  upon  the  prevailing  weeds,  especially  of  the 
Atlantic  coasts  and  river  borders  of  North  America. 
The  common  plantain,  Plantago  major^  was  called  by  the 
Indians  the  White-raan's-foot.  The  Canadian,  or  creep- 
ing thistle,  Cm'cus  arvensts^  or  Cirsium  arvense^  the  pest 
of  North  American  farmers,  and  therefore  often  called 
the  cursed  thistle,  is  an  importation  from  Europe.  Not 
only  have  most  of  the  cultivated  plants  and  grasses  been 
brought  from  Europe,  but,  according  to  Agassiz,  all  the 
plants  growing  by  the  road-sides  are  exotics. 

"  And  the  wheat  came  up,  and  the  bearded  rye, 
Beneath  the  breath  of  an  unknown  sky." 

"  Everywhere  in  the  track  of  the  white  man  we  find 
European  plants ;  the  native  weeds  have  disappeared 
before  him  like  the  Indian.  Even  along  the  railroads  we 
find  few  indigenous  species.  On  the  road  between  Boston 
and  Salem,  although  the  ground  is  uncultivated,  all  the 
plants  along  the  track  and  in  the  ditches  are  foreign."  * 
How  curious  are  the  reflections  which  such  facts  sug- 
gest !    Would  it  be  irrational  in  an  Indian  to  suppose 

•  lake  Superior,  its  Physical  Character,  &c.  p.  10.    Boston,  1850. 


no 


JOHN  m'LEAN  from  ANNANDALE. 


> 


that  these  European  weeds  in  the  ditches  of  the  Salem 
railroad  had  actually  followed  the  footsteps  of  the  Irish 
emigrants  who  dug  them  ?  May  not  the  seeds  of  them 
have  been  actually  shaken  from  the  shoes  of  the  newly- 
arrived  immigrants  ? 

On  the  Napan  River  there  are  many  settlers  from 
Dumfriesshire,  chiefly  from  Annandale.  This  has  arisen 
from  the  circumstance  that  a  traffic  in  timber  has  long 
existed  between  the  Miramichi  River  and  the  town  of 
Annan,  the  ships  engaged  in  which  afforded  an  easy 
passage  to  intending  emigrants.  Their  sons  are  noted 
as  the  best  ploughmen,  and  themselves  as  among  the  best 
farmers  in  the  province. 

With  one  of  these  settlers,  John  M'Lean,  I  had  an 
interesting  conversation ;  »nd  as  his  history  may  interest 
some  of  my  readers  also,  as  an  example  of  the  way  in 
which  steady  industry  overcomes  difficulties,  and  secures 
comparative  prosperity  in  a  new  country,  I  shall  state 
the  leading  facts  I  gathered  from  him.  He  came  over 
in  the  year  1822.  He  has  250  acres  in  his  farm,  of 
which  150  are  cleared  ;  but  he  has  not  force  to  keep  all 
this  land  in  crop.  He  works  it  with  the  aid  of  three  of 
his  sons,  two  daughters,  and  three  horses — keeps  eleven 
cows,  eight  or  nine  young  cattle,  and  a  few  sheep.  He 
bought  his  land  in  the  wild  state,  cleared  it  all  himself 
without  hired  labour,  and  has  raised  eleven  children.  He 
has  four  sons  settled  on  farms,  one  of  whom  paid  oS'150 
for  his  farm  ;  two  of  them  worked  as  carpenters  till  they 
had  saved  money  to  buy  their  farms.  Neither  he  nor 
any  of  his  children  ever  lumbered,  nor  should  any  of 
them  if  he  could  help  it.  Not  one  in  twenty  makes  any- 
thing by  lumbering ;  and  by  sticking  to  their  farms,  men 
in  the  long  run  always  make  a  better  living,  and  are  more 
independent,  than  by  anything  else.  Many  others  who 
came  out  with  him,  and  since  he  came,  have  stuck  to 
their  farms,  and  have  done  as  well  as  himself.     Though 


MONEY  A   SETTLER  SHOULD   HAVE. 


Ill 


of 


the  crops  have  failed  so  many  years,  few  in  this  settle- 
ment are  in  debt.  Oatmeal  porridge  and  milk  twice 
a-day,  and  oatmeal  cakes,  are  the  prevailing  diet.  Odds 
and  ends,  as  he  called  sugar,  tea,  &c.,  are  obtained  by 
the  sale  of  butter  and  cheese. 

Since  the  failure  of  the  potato,  the  bush-bean — a  pro- 
lific French  or  kidney  bean,  of  which  many  varieties  are 
cultivated  in  the  United  States — has  been  much  grown 
in  this  district.  It  comes  a  fortnight  earlier  than  the 
potato,  is  very  prolific,  and,  when  green,  is  an  excellent 
substitute  for  the  potato.  The  dry  bean  is  usually  baked 
with  pork.  This  vegetable  would  probably  succeed  well 
in  our  climate,  and  as  a  substitute  for  the  potato,  if  only 
in  part,  is  well  deserving  of  a  trial  among  us. 

Mr  M'Lean  thinks  a  man  would  do  well  in  Northum- 
berland, who  could  come  over  with  £50  in  his  pocket, 
and  better  with  £100.  But  he  ought  not  to  have  too 
much,  if  he  is  to  labour  contentedly,  and  to  prosper.  He 
had  himself  only  £5  when  he  settled,  besides  three  carts 
and  a  year's  provisions. 

If  these  statements  of  Mr  M'Lean  are  got  by  heart  by 
the  intending  emigrant  to  the  wilderness  parts  of  North 
America,  he  will  require  little  other  guidance  to  comfort, 
prosperity,  and  contentment. 

Three  miles  farther,  over  a  flat  coal  sandstone  country, 
brought  us  to  the  Black  River,  which  also  empties  itself 
into  the  Miramichi  Bay,  has  good  heavy  land  along  its 
banks,  and  a  prosperous  agricultural  settlement.  The 
next  twelve  miles  to  the  Bay-du-Vin  River,  is  over  a 
poor  sandy  country,  with  occasional  patches  of  cold  clay 
and  of  peat  bog,  resting  on  the  flat  impervious  sand- 
stones. 

The  Bay-du-Vin  Settlement  consists  of  about  a  dozen 
Irish  families,  who  have  a  school  and  Catholic  chapel. 
The  schoolmaster  said  he  had  forty  boys  at  school,  but 
the  parents  w^ere  poor,  and  paid  little ;  so  that  his  chief 


Mi 


11-2      ENCOURAQEMENT   TO   ELEMENTARY   SCHOOLS. 

support  was  the  provincial  grant  of  £20  which  ho  annually 
received.  In  regard  to  their  elementary  sciiools,  the  Pro- 
vincial Legislature  has  lately  adopted  important  means 
of  improvement  in  the  establishment  of  training  schools 
at  St  John  and  Fredericton.  Every  settlement  in  the 
province  has  its  school.  The  settlers  build  a  school- 
house,  and  select  a  master.  This  master  must  then — if 
not  a  pupil  of  the  training  school,  or  if  he  has  not  been 
previously  examined — undergo  an  examination  by  the 
master  of  the  training  school,  and,  according  to  his  pro- 
ficiency, he  receives  a  certificate,  which  entitles  him  to 
an  annual  stipend  of  :£'10,  =£'20,  or  £30.  As  yet,  the 
training  schools  have  not  been  able  to  supply  instructed 
masters  for  all  the  schools ;  houses  are  not  in  most  places 
built  for  the  masters,  and  the  schools  are  usually  shut  up 
in  the  summer  months.  This  is  very  much  the  case  also 
with  the  schools  in  the  newer  states  of  the  Union,  and  as 
the  population  becomes  more  dense,  these  evils  will  dis- 
appear. In  the  principal  town  of  each  county  a  gram- 
mar-school is  established,  to  which  larger  grants  are  given. 
In  1848,  the  grants  to  parish  and  Madras  schools 
amounted  to  ^13,882. 

The  schoolmaster  teaches  the  religious  catechism  which 
the  parents  of  his  pupils  wish  their  children  to  learn. 
Thus  the  same  master  sometimes  teaches  in  the  same 
school  the  Church  of  England  Catechism,  the  Assembly's 
Catechism,  and  that  of  the  Eomish  Church.  The  school- 
master at  Bay  du  Vin  was  surprised  that  I  should  think 
there  was  anything  remarkable  in  his  being  required  to 
teach  all  the  three,  though  he  said  he  had  once  before 
heard  some  one  make  remarks  regarding  it.  He  was 
himself  a  Roman  Catholic ;  but  it  was  enough  for  him 
that  he  had  been  ordered  to  do  it. 

We  drove  rapidly  over  the  remaining  twenty-two 
miles  to  Richibucto.  This  tract  of  country  presented  the 
common  level  surface,  and  the  sandy,  often  thin,  poor, 


SWEET   FERN  aOILS. 


Ill 


and  stony  soUg  which  distinguish  so  much  of  the  coal 
measures  of  New  Brunswick.  VVe  crossed  on  our  way 
the  Kouchibouguac,  tiic  Kouchib<  iiguasis,  and  the  Aldou- 
ane  rivers,  flowing  from  the  wcmc  ;  and  for  some  distance 
on  each  side  of  these  rivers,  good  land  and  fine  settle- 
ments were  almost  universally  to  be  seen.  On  the  flat 
country,  the  clearings  are  few  and  thinly  scattered. 
Hardwood  ridges  of  land  now  and  then  rose  above  the 
flat  country,  and  on  these  were  more  valuable  farms  and 
settlements.  But,  as  I  came  over  this  ground  again  in 
the  ensuing  October,  I  omit  any  further  observations  in 
this  place. 

2Sth. — I  left  Richibucto  at  eight  in  the  morning.  It 
was  at  first  misty,  but  by  degrees  became  excessively 
hot.  After  a  few  miles  of  better  land,  the  soil  and 
country  became  very  similar  to  that  we  passed  over 
yesterday — flat,  poor,  pine-clad,  sandy  soils,  except 
where  rivulets  and  armlets  of  the  sea  occurred.  Plere 
better  land,  and  a  few  settlers,  as  usual,  occurred. 
Fifteen  miles  brought  us  to  the  Big  Buctouche  iiiver, 
near  its  mouth,  where  it  expands  into  an  arm  of  the  sea, 
and  falls  into  Northumberland  Strait,  opposite  to  Prince 
Edward's  Island.  Tide-water  here  extends  six  or  eight 
miles  above  the  bridge  and  harbour;  and  along  the 
inland  bay  there  is  much  cleared  land,  and  some  good 
farms. 

On  the  sandy  soils  of  the  county  of  Kent,  north  and 
south  of  Richibucto,  I  saw,  for  the  first  time  in  New 
Brunswick,  the  sweet  fem  [Comptoma  asplenifoh'a,) 
which  had  previously  arrested  my  attention  in  the  great 
sandy  plain  of  Aylesford,  In  the  Annapolis  Valley  between 
Windsor  and  Bridgetown.  I  afterwards  saw  it  on 
many  other  of  the  more  barren  sandy  portions  of  the 
north-eastern  part  of  this  province.  It  is  a  saying  in 
some  of  our  own  rural  districts,  that,  where  the  common 

VOL.  I.  H 


mm'''?9t>timmm 


V 


114 


PATIENT  TEMPER  OF  THE   HABITANTS. 


fern  grows  naturally,  something  more  valuable  may  be 
made  to  grow  by  art — and  so  it  was  remarked  to  me  of 
the  sweet  fern  in  Nova  Scotia ;  but  except  for  rye  or 
buckwheat,  or  the  horse-chesnut,  or  some  similar  sand- 
loving  plants,  the  soils  on  which  the  Comptoma  abounded 
have  generally  appeared  to  me  very  little  adapted  to  the 
economical  production  of  vegetable  forms  likely  to 
minister  to  the  sustenance  of  man. 

Eleven  miles  farther  brought  us  to  the  Cocagne  River, 
In  the  neighbourhood  of  which  there  are  extensive 
clearings,  and  much  improved  land,  but  generally  light 
and  sandy.  A  shade  of  red  had  begun  some  time  ago 
to  appear  in  the  soil,  as  if  a  portion  of  red  drift  from  the 
old  red  sandstones  of  Prince  Edward's  Island  had  been 
transported,  and  mixed  up  with  the  natural  debris  of  the 
coal  measures  of  the  country. 

We  saw  a  few  patches  of  Indian  com  on  our  route 
to-day,  generally  poor  crops,  unlike  what  we  had  seen 
upon  the  St  John,  and  on  the  farms  of  the  old  French 
settlers.  Along  this  coast  the  French  are  numerous. 
They  have  suffered  much  from  the  failures  of  the  crops 
during  the  last  two  or  three  years,  but  few  have  left  the 
country.  They  are  a  much  more  patient  and  contented 
race  than  the  Anglo-Saxon  settlers,  who  are  always 
painting  in  brighter  colours  the  beauty  and  fertility  of 
places  they  have  never  seen,  and  shading  more  deeply 
the  evils  that  surround  them.  Six  miles  beyond  Cocagne 
I  stopped  at  a  farm  of  500  acres,  bought  by  its  owner 
thirty  years  ago  for  jE14,  and  now  valued,  with  the 
stock  upon  it,  to  the  poor-rate  at  £1000.  Yet  this  man, 
who  had  so  prospered,  wished  to  sell  his  farm,  that  he 
might  start  for  Indiana.  He  had  no  good  reason  to 
give  for  going  but  the  same  failure  of  crops  which  the 
humbler  habitants  so  patiently  bear.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that,  both  for  Europe  and  America,  these  visitations  are 
now  for  a  period  overpast. 


I 


CANADIAN  OTSTER. 


115 


From  Cocagne  is  nine  miles  to  Shediac,  a  village  of 
some  twenty  houses,  with  a  little-frequented  harbour, 
which,  among  the  New  Brunswick  gourmands,  is  famed 
for  its  oysters.  The  oysters  of  this  coast,  and  of  the 
shores  of  the  Gulf  of  St  Lawrence  generally,  are  very 
different  in  size  and  appearance  from  our  comparatively 
small  English  oysters.  They  are  of  a  species  known  as 
the  Canadian  oyster  ( Osfrea  canadensis,)  are  very  large, 
and  inhabit  a  shell  which  is  long,  narrow,  massive, 
somewhat  curved,  and  often  attains  a  length  of  eight 
inches.  The  heavy  shells  are  frequently  burned  into 
Hme,  and  are  occasionally  seen  in  large  heaps  on  the 
road-sides,  collected  for  this  purpose.  I  don't  know  to 
what  extent  it  actually  takes  place,  but  I  was  told  that 
the  New  Brunswick  pigs  have  learned  to  open  and  relish 
the  oysters,  and  that  they  frequent  the  sea- shore  and 
contrive  to  feed  upon  them ! 

We  had  arrived  at  Shediac  in  good  time  for  dinner ; 
but  as  I  wished  to  accomplish  the  remaining  thirteen 
miles  of  my  day's  journey  while  it  was  still  light,  I  left 
my  provincial  friends  to  enjoy  their  oyster  feast,  mounted 
a  single  horse  car,  with  a  young  habitant  for  my  guide, 
and  drove  on  to  the  Bend,  as  it  is  called,  on  the  river 
Petitcodiac.  There  were  many  fires  to  be  seen  raging 
in  the  woods,  and  the  evening  came  on  early  in  conse- 
quence of  the  smoke  with  which  the  air  was  everywhere 
tilled. 

The  Bend  is  a  village  which  derives  its  name  from 
being  situated  at  the  point  where  the  river  Petitcodiac, 
which  had  been  flowing  north-east,  bends  suddenly 
almost  at  a  right  angle,  and  flows  south-east  towards 
Shepody  Bay,  one  of  the  head  forks  of  the  Bay  of 
Fundy.  The  tide  flows  up  from  this  bay  a  distance  of 
20  miles,  and  rises  at  common  tides  22  feet  8  inches,  and 
at  the  highest  tides  28  feet  8  inches.  It  rushes  up  with 
a  bore  which  at  spring-tides  is  5  or  six  feet  high,  and  to 


--., 

\ 

116 

RISE  OF  THE  TIDE  AT  THE  BEND.        .  , 

boatmen  and  shipmasters  who  are  unacquainted  with  the 
river  is  sometimes  a  source  of  danger.  Dr  Gesner  states 
that  it  is  three  hours'*  flood  at  the  mouth  of  the  river 
before  the  tide  reaches  the  Bend,  that  it  flows  in  and 
ebbs  off^  in  six  hours,  and,  though  the  rise  of  the  tide  in 
feet  is  not  so  great  as  at  places  near  its  mouth,  yet  that 
the  level  of  high  water  at  the  Bend  is  in  reality  several 
feet  higher  than  that  of  high  water  at  the  head  of  She- 
pody  Bay.* 

Thus,  at  Dorchester  Island,  in  the  open  bay,  and  at  the 
Bend,  the  height  of  high  water  above  the  level  of  low 
water  at  the  former  place  is  as  follows : — 


Common  tides, 
Highest  tides,  . 


At  Dorcliester  Island.      At  the  Bend. 

.    .    36  feet.         45  feet  4  in 
.    .    48  feet.         67  feet  4  in 


;} 


Difference. 

9^  feet. 


The  level  of  the  river  at  high  water  is  therefore  9  feet 
higher  than  it  is  at  the  mouth  of  the  river.  Above  the 
level  of  high  water  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  it  Is  probably 
several  feet  higher  still.  Could  the  outfalls  of  the  river  be 
improved,  therefore,  as  has  been  the  case  in  our  north 
of  England  river  Wear,  a  much  more  perfect  drainage 
of  the  river-side  intervale  land  might  be  effected,  and 
the  level  of  high  water  so  much  reduced  as  to  render 
securely  dry  many  tracts  now  liable  to  periodical 
overflow. 

It  is  to  the  former  prevalence  of  such  phenomena  as 
this,  and  not  to  a  real  elevation  of  the  land,  that  some  of 
the  discoveries  of  animal  remains  embedded  in  alluvial 
soils,  now  considerably  above  the  existing  level  of  adjoin- 
ing waters,  is  to  be  ascribed. 

At  high  water,  the  river  at  the  Bend  is  broad,  de^p, 
and  beautiful.  Vessels  of  100  tons  can  then  come  up  to 
the  town,  which  is  thus  enabled  to  carry  on  a  direct 
trade  with  Boston  in  the  United  States.  In  the  summer 
months  a  steamer  also  plies  between  the  town  and  the 
*  Dr  Oesneb's  Neiv  Brumwick,  p.  90. 


CHANGE  IN   THE  SCENERY  AND  SOIL. 


117 


city  of  St  John.  At  low  water  the  river  narrows 
exceedingly,  and  deep,  muddy,  and  sandy  flats  appear. 
Along  the  immediate  banks  of  the  stream  there  is  much 
fine  land,  and  the  mud,  which  is  copiously  deposited 
between  high  and  low  water  marks,  is  very  rich,  aod  is 
extensively  employed  for  manuring  purposes. 

29th  August, — We  drove  twelve  miles  up  the  Petitco- 
diac  River  this  morning  to  breakfast.  From  the  Bend  to 
St  John,  a  distance  of  ninety-four  miles,  the  country  is 
more  or  less  settled  all  the  way.  Much  of  the  land  is  of 
inferior  quality,  light,  sandy,  and  gravelly ;  but  there  is 
much  good  land  also,  and  the  country  generally  along  the 
road  is  more  undulating,  abounds  more  in  the  picturesque, 
and  has  more  the  air  of  a  civilised  old  settled  region 
than  almost  any  other  tract  of  equal  extent  in  the  pro- 
vince. This  superiority  arises,  in  great  measure,  from  a 
change  in  the  prevailing  geological  formation.  Before 
reaching  the  Bend,  we  pass  from  the  grey  coal  measure 
sandstones  on  to  red  marls,  red  sandstones,  and  red  con- 
glomerates, with  subordinate  beds  of  limestone  and  gyp- 
sum, which  extend  to  within  a  few  mikj  of  St  John. 
The  round  hills  of  our  English  Monmouthshire  appear  in 
this  region  in  Mount  Pisgah,  Piccadilly  Mountain,  and 
other  striking  elevations  which  are  still  unnamed.  Soils 
like  some  of  those  in  South  Wales,  "  which  eat  up  all  the 
manure,  and  drink  up  all  the  water,"  are  formed  in  many 
spots  from  the  drift  of  these  red  rocks,  while  in  not  a  few 
places  red  soils  like  those  of  the  Lothians  are  produced, 
over  which  extend  rich  and  fertile  farms.  Over  all  this 
red  district  the  land  is  absorbent  of  moisture,  easy  to  till, 
and  early  ready  for  the  seed  in  spring,  or  for  the  sickle 
in  autumn.  The  subordinate  beds  of  lime  and  gypsum 
also  contribute  to  improve  the  soils  which  rest  upon  this 
formation ;  while  the  salt  with  which  it  is  impregnated, 
as  shown  by  its  salt  springs,  is  probably  not  without  its 
influence  on  the  general  vegetation.     Along  this  line  of 


i 


118 


MR  NIXON'S  experience. 


I 


country,  wheat  used  to  be  grown  in  large  quantity, 
for  the  supply  of  other  parts  of  the  province ;  but  the 
ravages  of  the  wheat-fly,  for  the  last  five  years,  have 
made  it  necessary  to  substitute  oats  and  buckwheat  in 
its  place,  even  for  local  consumption. 

Our  landlord,  Mr  Nixon,  with  whom  we  breakfasted, 
had  a  comfortable  house,  a  nice  family,  and  certainly  the 
very  cleanest  and  tidiest  kitchen  I  have  seen  in  New 
Brunswick.  He  came  from  home,  and  settled  here  in  the 
wilderness,  eighteen  years  ago.  For  his  farm  of  275 
acres,  he  paid  £50.  A  hundred  acres  of  it  are  now  cleared, 
twenty -five  of  them  being  still  in  stump.  Over  and  above 
the  price  they  paid  for  the  land,  he  and  his  two  brothers  had 
only  £60  to  begin  with ;  but  at  the  end  of  ten  years  the 
farm  and  stock  were  valued  at  £1000,  and  he  bought 
his  brothers  out.  The  land  and  buildings  are  now,  in  the 
depressed  state  of  things,  worth  about  £800.  He  con- 
siders New  Brunswick  a  good  poor  man's  country — an 
expression  which  briefly  includes  all  the  main  recommen- 
dations of  North  America  generally  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Europe.  "  Those  who  are  comfortable  at  home,"  as 
another  settler  said  to  me,  "  had  better  stay  there." 

The  land  on  this  farm  is  somewhat  light  and  sandy ; 
but  it  is  greatly  enriched  by  a  covering  of  the  river  mud. 
Of  this,  one  hundred  loads  are  applied  to  the  acre — being 
dug  up  dry  during  the  frosts  of  winter,  when  other  work 
is  scarce,  and  spread  over  the  surface  either  of  the  tillage 
or  grass  land — and  its  good  effiects  last  for  twenty  years. 
From  his  upland,  by  this  treatment,  he  cuts  two  and 
a-half  tons  of  hay  an  acre,  obtains  300  or  400  bushels  of 
potatoes,  and  as  much  as  1200  bushels  of  turnips. 

It  is  a  subject  of  almost  universal  remark  throughout 
the  province  that,  as  a  general  rule,  British-born  settlers 
succeed  better  than  the  provincial-born  or  natives.  They 
ore  steadier,  more  persevering,  and  more  industrious. 
And  I  could  not  help  remarking  myself,  that,  in  New 


Bruaswi 
not  appe 
From  th 
as  some 
rally  or 
that  a  Yw 
home  ish 
work  so 

At  the 
necessity 
America 
free  Blac 
who  have 
and  indus 
inherited 
the  sons  ( 
doubt  th( 
the  sons  s 
the  same 

Wheth( 
vable  in  A 
to  questio 
nection  w 
Anglo-Sa: 
acclimatisi 
Theexc 
buckwhea 
fast  that  w 
is  subject 
the  State  c 
the  excell 
being  subj 
Leaving 
the  forest 
were  brou 
which  wer 


,  / 


GREATER  ENERGY   OF  NEW  SETPLERS. 


119 


as 


Brudswick  as  a  whole,  the  regularly  settled  inhabitants  did 
not  appear  to  work  so  hard  as  the  same  classes  do  at  home. 
From  that  fact,  however,  I  did  not  feel  myself  justified, 
as  some  did,  in  concluding  that  the  native-born  are  natu- 
rally or  absolutely  indolent ;  ray  conclusion  was  rather 
that  a  living  was  easier  got  in  the  province  than  in  the 
home  islands,  and  that,  therefore,  they  did  not  require  to 
work  so  hard  to  obtain  it  as  we  do  at  home. 

At  the  same  time,  the  absence  of  the  strong  spur  of 
necessity  does  tempt  poor  human  nature  to  indolence  in 
America  as  it  does  in  Europe.  It  is  remarked  among  the 
free  Blacks  in  the  middle  states  of  the  Union,  that  those 
who  have  bought  their  own  freedom  are  far  more  energetic 
and  industrious  men  than  the  coloured  people  who  have 
inherited  their  freedom.  In  Boston,  it  is  observed  that 
the  sons  of  rich  men  rarely  succeed  as  merchants ;  and  no 
doubt  there  must  be  some  truth  in  Ae  statement,  that 
the  sons  and  grandsons  of  British  settlers  do  not  display 
the  same  energy  as  their  emigrant  fathers. 

Whether  such  differences  are  greater  or  more  obser- 
vable in  America  than  they  are  in  Europe  is  at  least  open 
to  question,  though  it  is  a  point  of  much  interest  in  con- 
nection with  the  impossibility,  alleged  by  some,  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  ever  becoming  permanently  fixed  and 
acclimatised  in  the  New  World. 

The  excessiye  heat  of  the  season  was  here  injuring  the 
buckwheat,  blighting  what  was  not  set,  and  ripening  too 
fast  that  which  had  begua  to  fill.  To  this  evil,  buckwheat 
is  subject  occasionally  all  over  Northern  America.  In 
tlie  State  of  New  York,  I  obtained  a  sample  of  a  variety, 
the  excellence  of  which  was  said  to  consist  in  its  not 
being  subject  to  blight  from  the  midsummer  sun. 

Leaving  Nixon's  after  breakfast,  we  were  about  to  enter 
the  forest  again  at  the  distance  of  about  a  mile,  when  we 
were  brought  up  by  a  burned  bridge,  the  embers  of 
which  were  still  smoking.     The  fire  had  communicated 


■ 


i 


I;  I 

1  ': 

-i. 


it.  - 


"^  -  -  -*^*-^ 


120 


A   BURNED   BRIDGE. 


I 


to  it  from  the  burning  Avoods,  and  consumed  it  probably 
during  the  night.  But  we  were  not  long  detained. 
Doffing  our  coats,  and  obeying  the  directions  of  our 
companion,  Mr  Brown,  we  rigged  up  beams,  along 
which  we  guided  the  carriage  across  the  brook ;  and  then, 
yoking  the  horses  anew,  were  under  weigh  after  little 
more  than  an  hour's  agreeable  amusement.  Twelve  miles 
farther  brought  us  to  Steeves's,  through  narrow  clearings 
on  each  side  of  the  road,  comfortable-looking  farms  and 
farm-houses,  and  occasional  good  land. 

While  our  horses  were  resting,  I  engaged  a  light  wag- 
gon, and  drove  three  miies  off  the  main  road  to  the  banks 
of  the  North  River,  to  inspect  an  outcrop  of  limestone  at 
a  short  distance  from  which  gypsum  was  said  to  occur ; 
while,  within  about  a  mile,  salt  springs  also  were  known. 
We  found  some  good  farms  along  this  part  of  the  North 
River,  and  good  land  derived  from  the  mixed  calcareous 
and  sandstone  debris.  The  limestone  was  hard,  destitute 
of  apparent  fossils,  and,  as  subsequent  analyses  showed, 
very  pure,  and  admirably  fitted  for  agricultural  purposes. 
It  had  been  quarried  for  building,  but  the  application  of 
lime  to  the  land  was  in  this  district  scarcely  known. 

The  bed  of  limestone  was  in  contact  with,  and  appa- 
rently overlying  a  coarse  red  sandstone,  which  effervesced 
strongly  with  acids,  and  which  I  afterwards  found  to 
contain  as  much  as  seventeen  and  a-half  per  cent  of 
carbonate  of  lime,  and  half  a  per  cent  of  gypsum.  The 
presence  of  so  large  a  portion  of  lime  in  a  sandstone,  in 
the  states  of  carbonate  and  sulphate,  must  add  very  much 
to  the  canabilities  of  any  soil  that  is  formed  from  it. 

At  Steeves's,  where  we  had  stopped  to  rest  our  horses, 
the  Petitcodiac  ceased  to  be  navigable  for  canoes,  and  an 
Indian  portage  commenced  of  twelve  or  thirteen  miles  to 
the  navigable  waters  of  the  Salmon  River,  which  flows 
south-westward,  and,  joining  the  Kenebecasis,  ultimately 
falls  into  the  River  St  John.     Thirteen  miles  brought  us 


BEAUTY  OF  THE  VALE  OF  SUSSEX. 


121 


to  Macleod's  at  the  end  of  the  portage,  and  as  many 
more  to  Sheck's  in  the  Vale  of  Sussex,  along  the  bottom 
of  which  the  Salmon  River  flows.  The  country  through 
which  the  road  ran  was  very  parched ;  the  soil  sandy 
and  gravelly,  as  red  sandstone  soils  often  are,  but 
mixed  with  frequent  tracts  of  more  useful  land.  Ex- 
tensive flats  occurred  also,  upon  which,  as  we  passed 
over  them,  a  wilderness  of  scrub  and  other  pines  pre- 
vailed; while  the  high  lands  in  the  distance  were  covered 
with  the  cheering  broad-leaved  foliage  of  hardwood 
trees. 

The  ridges  which  on  either  hand  border  the  Salmon 
River  open  out  as  we  approach  Sussex  Vale,  and  afford 
space  for  a  broad  valley,  into  which  the  traveller  looks 
down  as  he  approaches  by  the  high  road,  and  is  at  once 
struck  with  the  scenery  as  among  the  finest  of  its  kind 
anywhere  to  be  seen  in  the  province  of  New  Brunswick. 
The  whole  valley  is  cleared  and  under  culture.  It  is  stud- 
ded with  rounded  knolls  and  ridges  of  drifted  sand  and 
gravel,  the  wrecks  of  the  sandstones  out  of  which  the 
valley  has  been  scooped.  On  either  hand  the  ground  rises 
into  wooded  hills  and  low  mountains,  rounded,  as  such 
red  rocks  usually  are ;  while  the  river  flowing  through 
the  bottom  of  the  valley,  among  scattered  farms  and 
villages,  and  churches,  and  receiving  tributaries  from 
every  gorge,  completes  a  picture  which,  when  the  crops 
are  ripe,  as  they  now  were,  is  very  cheering  and  home- 
like to  look  upon  in  an  unsubdued  country  like  this.  On 
the  present,  as  well  as  on  a  subsequent  occasion,  when  I 
visited  the  Vale  of  Sussex,  my  impression  was,  that  I 
had  seen  few  parts  of  the  provin^g  which  I  should  prefer 
as  a  place  of  permanent  settlement  to  the  neighbourhood 
of  this  beautiful  valley. 

The  air  was  thick  with  smoke  as  we  drove  down  the 
valley  towards  our  intended  quarters ;  fires  were  burning 
in  the  woods  in  every  direction,  and  from  one  spot  I 


—  iniTni[inniiim,nii  MmiMi,  111.10., 


^ 


122 


Mil  EVANSON  8  HOME  FAUM. 


counted  no  less  than  five-and-twenty  burnings  visible  at 
the  same  time  in  the  primeval  forest. 

30th  August. — Early  in  the  morning,  I  drove  over  to 
visit  Mr  Evanson,  an  Old  Country  settler,  who  owns  a 
fine  estate  in  one  of  the  richest  parts  of  the  valley.  The 
intervale  land  through  which  the  river  flows,  produces 
2^  tons  of  hay  an  acre,  and  is  valued  at  jElO  an  acre. 
The  undulating  slightly  elevated  land  on  which  Mr 
Evanson's  home  farm  rests  is  a  red  loamy  clay,  is  valued 
at  £7,  lOs.  an  acre,  and  produces  25  bushels  of  wheat, 
35  of  oats,  40  of  buckwheat,  and  250  to  300  of  potatoes. 
This  farm  of  400  acres  —  200  acres  still  in  wood,  30  in 
crop,  and  the  rest  in  grass,  with  a  house  for  a  gentleman 
to  live  in,  and  other  buildings — he  valued  at  £3000. 
This  is  high  for  the  country,  however,  being  at  the  rate 
of  £7,  10s.  an  acre  for  cleared  and  uncleared  land 
together. 

In  this  district  some  farms  are  let  on  a  money-rent ; 
though,  as  I  have  already  said,  this  kind  of  farming  is 
not  popular  in  North  America.  It  prevails  more  here,  I 
believe,  because  this  Sussex  Vale  is  an  eligible  spot, 
likely  to  attract  by  its  appearance  a  settler  from  the 
Old  Country,  and  because  it  is  easily  accessible  from  the 
port  of  St  John,  where  most  of  the  emigrants  land. 

I  walked  over  the  farm  of  Andrew  Alton,  a  Scotch- 
man, which  consists  of  100  acres  of  good  land  of  different 
qualities,  lying  between  the  true  flat  intervale  and  the 
upland.  It  is  valued  at  £7  an  acre,  and  he  pays  £44 
a-year  of  rent  for  the  whole — or  9s.  an  acre — which  in 
other  parts  of  the  province  would  be  considered  a  high 
rent.  He  had  12  acres  in  oats,  3^  in  buckwheat,  4^ 
in  potatoes,  3i^  in  turnips,  cuts  30  acres  for  hay,  and  has 
the  rest  in  pasture.  He  keeps  16  cows  in  milk,  7 
young  catt!  ^,  makes  30  cwt.  of  cheese,  and  works  his 
land  with  one  pair  of  horses.  His  farm  is  held  on  a  lease 
of  seven  years;  he  thinks  his  rent  moderate,  has  uo 


difficulty 
Ayrshire 
winter  a( 

Tenan 
cultural 
likely  to 
is  foUowe 
were  the 
succession 
Scotch  fa 
manured 
when  sow 
first  year- 
Carse  of  < 
farmers  co 
land  as  efl 
old  war  ti 
are  sown 
are  cut,  n^ 
the  third  "v 
or  ten  yes 
fourths  of 
oats,  and  a 
a  similar  e 

It  is  evi 
Brunswick 
tenant,  ha 
cream  off 
request,  he 
any  good  < 
for  himself 

An  adjc 
English  te 
acres  of  rii 
3  tons  of  1 
£2000. 


EXHAUSTING   MODE  OF  CROPPING. 


189 


difficulty  in  paying  it,  and  finds  a  market  at  St  John. 
Ayrshire  and  Durham  cattle,  he  assured  me,  stood  the 
winter  admirably. 

Tenant-farming,  as  I  have  said,  is  rare ;  but  the  agri- 
cultural reader  will  judge  whether  landlord  or  tenant  is 
likely  to  benefit  most  by  the  course  of  cropping  which 
is  followed.  On  Mr  Alton's  farm,  some  of  the  oats 
were  the  third  crop  without  manure  ;  and  eight  crops  in 
succession,  without  manure,  are  common.  Though  a 
Scotch  farmer,  and  keeping  so  many  cattle,  Alton  only 
manured  the  little  patch  of  turnips  he  raised.  Clover, 
when  sown  for  the  first  time,  grows  three  feet  high  the 
first  year — as  it  used  to  do  in  more  virgin  days  on  the 
Carse  of  Gowrie  in  Scotland ;  but  the  New  Brunswick 
farmers  contrive  to  take  the  proud  luxuriance  out  of  the 
land  as  effectually  as  any  Perthshire  farmer,  even  of  the 
old  war  times,  could  do.  Red  clover  and  Timothy  grass 
are  sown  on  the  wheat.  The  first  year,  2  tons  of  hay 
are  cut,  nearly  all  clover — the  second  year,  little  clover — 
the  third  year,  all  Timothy.  After  this  it  is  cut  eight 
or  ten  years,  or  as  long  as  it  yields  one-half  or  three- 
fourths  of  a  ton  per  acre.  It  is  then  ploughed  out  for 
oats,  and  after  potatoes  and  wheat  is  laid  down  again  for 
a  similar  exhausting  treatment  by  means  of  hay. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  tenant-farmer  in  New 
Brunswick,  if  he  can  only  content  himself  to  remain  a 
tenant,  has  the  best  of  the  bargain.  He  takes  the 
cream  off  the  land  and  leaves  it ;  and  as  tenants  are  in 
request,  he  can  easily  shift  to  another  farm,  or  can  take 
any  good  opportunity  which  may  present  itself  of  buying 
for  himself. 

An  adjoining  farm  to  this  of  Mr  Alton's  is  let  to  an 
English  tenant,  for  a  rent  of  i690.  It  consists  of  120 
acres  of  rich  laud,  chiefly  rich  intervale,  yielding  2^  to 
3  tons  of  hay  an  acre,  and,  with  buildings,  is  valued  at 
62000.      In  proportion  to  the  supposed  value  of  the 


124 


TOWN  OF  HAMPTON. 


i  ! 


f 


farm,  the  rent  appears  lower  in  this  case  than  in  that 
of  Aiton. 

A  drive  of  twelve  miles  down  the  Salmon  Kiver, 
through  similar  red  land,  generally  light,  but  often  good, 
brought  us  to  Baxter's.  Within  about  four  miles,  two 
considerable  streams  join  the  Salmon  River  from  the 
west ;  beyond  which  the  united  streams  are  called  the 
Kenebecasis ;  and,  the  river  valley  narrowing,  we  leave 
Sussex  Vale  behind. 

Near  the  mouth  of  the  lowest  of  these  streams  I  saw 
a  farm  of  500  acres,  of  which  150  were  cleared,  includ- 
ing a  portion  of  intervale  land.  The  owner  on  this 
farm  supports  a  large  family,  raises  nearly  all  they  re- 
quire for  home  consumption,  such  as  grain,  flax,  &c., 
and  realises  from  iJoO  to  £150  a-year. 

After  twdve  miles  more  of  a  beautiful  drive  down  the 
Kenebecasis,  we  arrived  at  the  town  of  Hampton,  where 
we  crossed  the  river  on  our  way  to  St  John.  On  leaving 
Sussex  Vale,  we  found  ourselves  upon  a  coarse  red  sand- 
stone conglomerate,  which  accompanied  us  for  some  miles 
below  Hampton,  and  formed  a  surface  naturally  much 
more  difficult  to  improve,  and  therefore  less  valuable  to 
the  purchaser,  than  the  red  land  we  had  left  behind  us. 
Rocks  and  stones  were  strewed  plentifully  over  the 
slopes.  Masses  of  the  hard  conglomerate  protruded 
from  the  soil,  and  deterred  the  poorer,  less  adventurous, 
or  less  persevering  cultivators.  Still,  much  labour  had 
here  and  there  been  expended  upon  this  forbidding 
surface.  Good  soils  had  rewarded  those  who  found 
courage  enough  to  clear  them  of  trees  and  stones,  and 
the  beautiful  landscape  gave,  in  a  stranger's  eye,  a  double 
value  to  homes  established  in  spite  of  obstacles  in  this 
portion  of  the  county  of  King's. 

At  the  town  of  Hampton,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting 
some  of  the  most  intelligent  members  of  the  agricultural 
society  of  this  county.    They  assured  me  that  an  indus- 


INFI 

trious  er 
more  st( 
must  bej 
Here,  tc 
verance 
with  the 
mouths  ( 
can  since 
that,  in  i 
not  to  be 
vincial- 
men  and 
the  more 
and  that, 
the  desce 
where  m 
as  they  i 
specify  oi 
of  habits 

TheK 
of  lakes, 
open  out 
mouth.  . 
vale  and 
possesses 
are  espec 
yield.  I 
intervale 
in  dry  s( 
sinks  bel 
become  i 
nutritive 

One  f 
below  Ha 
30  acres 
and  whi( 


INFERIOR  ENERGY  OP  THE  PROVINCIAL  BORN.     126 

trious  emigrant,  without  capital,  will  thrive  even  in  this 
more  stony  part  of  their  district;  and  that,  though  he 
must  bear  privations,  yet  they  never  knew  a  failure. 
Here,  too,  the  praise  of  superior  industry  and  perse- 
verance was  awarded  to  the  emigrant  in  comparison 
with  the  provincial-born  native.  This  opinion  from  the 
mouths  of  natives  is  certainly  very  provoking,  since  I 
can  sincerely  say,  after  a  very  long  tour  in  the  province, 
that,  in  my  opinion,  a  finer-looking  body  of  yeomanry  is 
not  to  be  seen  in  any  part  of  the  world.  The  first  pro- 
vincial-bom generation  shoots  up  tall  and  handsome 
men  and  women,  pleasant  to  look  upon.  It  may  be  that 
the  more  slender  form  is  inclined  less  to  steady  labour, 
and  that,  with  the  bodily  figure,  the  habits  and  tempers  of 
the  descendants  of  industrious  settlers  change  also.  But 
where  men  are  submitted  to  so  many  new  influences, 
as  they  are  in  this  new  country,  it  is  very  diflicult  to 
specify  or  distinguish  how  much  of  any  observed  change 
of  habits  is  due  to  each. 

The  Kenebecasis,  below  Hampton,  widens  Into  a  series 
of  lakes,  which,  at  the  distance  of  about  twenty  miles, 
open  out  into  the  St  John  River  a  few  miles  above  its 
mouth.  Along  the  borders  of  this  expanded  river,  inter- 
vale and  marsh  lands  occur.  Every  old  upland  farm 
possesses  more  or  less  of  each  of  these  varieties,  which 
are  especially  esteemed  for  the  quantity  of  hay  they 
yield.  In  wet  seasons,  when  the  river  is  high,  the 
intervale  and  upland  give  abundance  of  fodder;  while 
in  dry  seasons,  when  the  upland  is  parched,  the  water 
sinks  below  the  level  of  the  marsh  lands,  which  then 
become  accessible,  and  yield  a  coarse  and  rushy,  but 
nutritive  hay. 

One  farm  of  this  kind,  now  on  sale,  seven  miles 
below  Hampton,  consisting  of  200  acres  in  all — of  which 
30  acres  are  marsh  and  intervale,  and  80  cleared  upland, 
and  which  cuts  40   tons  of  hay — is  valued  at  £600 


126 


A   DISCONTENTED   IRISHMAN. 


currency.  Another,  containing  100  acres  of  upland,  of 
which  about  60  are  cleared,  and  as  much  marsh  as  cuts 
20  tons  of  hay,  is  offered  for  £400.  Men  of  small 
capital,  therefore,  would  find  at  once  in  this  district  a 
comfortable  provision,  not  of  luxuries,  but  of  necessaries 
for  their  families,  by  the  purchase  of  such  farms  as  these. 

From  Hampton  to  Hammond  Bridge  the  drive  was 
very  beautiful.  The  low  marsh  and  river  on  our  right, 
the  picturesque  trap  ridges  and  isolated  hills,  the  rounded 
conglomerate  masses,  covered  with  hardwood  timber, 
and  the  distant  mountain  ranges,  were  all  finely  brought 
out  and  blended  together  by  the  sinking  sun.  The  road 
lay  along  the  upturned  pdges  of  conglomerate  rocks, 
dipping  at  a  high  angle  towards  the  river ;  and  the 
surface,  as  before,  was  covered  with  detached  masses  of 
the  rock,  and  with  drifted  sand  and  gravel.  Though  the 
removal  of  the  stones  from  such  land  must  be  very 
laborious,  yet  we  passed  by  the  way  several  fine  farm- 
houses, with  much  completely  cleared  and  apparently 
good  land. 

From  this  point  (eleven  miles  to  St  John)  a  change 
came  over  the  country.  We  entered  a  region  of  more 
or  less  metamorphic  intermingled  slate  and  trap  rocks, 
on  which  lay  poor,  sandy,  and  gravelly  soils.  Here  and 
there  scattered  clearings  were  seen,  but  the  greater  part 
of  the  surface  is  still  covered  with  forests  of  native  pine. 

About  a  piile  after  we  had  crossed  the  Hammond 
Bridge,  I  entered  the  log-hut  of  a  poor  Irishman  upon  a 
small  clearing.  Though  he  had  been  many  years  in  the 
province,  and  was  still  in  the  prime  of  life,  he  was 
miserably  poor  and  discontented.  He  was  almost  the 
only  one  of  his  countrymen  whom  I  had  met  with,  up  to 
this  time,  in  New  Brunswick,  who  had  nothing  but  com- 
plaints to  make  of  the  country,  and  of  the  hard  work  he 
was  doomed  to.  He  had  landed  near  the  place,  and  had 
never  moved  farther,  because  he  had  no  one  to  depend 


DYKED   MARSH   OF  ST  JOHN. 


ir 


tipmi  but  hi'maelf.  Ho  was  a  kind  of  squatter,  supported 
hitiisclf  as  a  day-labourer,  and  was  evidently  one  of 
those  inconsiderate,  idly-disposed,  discontented  men,  of 
whom  too  many,  unfortunately  for  Ireland,  love  to 
linger  and  complain  on  our  own  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

We  reached  St  John  at  nine  p.m.,  after  travelling 
three  hundred  and  eighty-two  miles  with  the  same  pair 
of  horses,  in  very  hot  weather,  and  at  the  rate  of  about 
fifty  miles  a-day. 

1st  Sept. — In  the  neighbourhood  of  St  John  there  is  a 
large  tract  of  dyked  marsh,  containing  upwards  of  a 
thousand  acres.  This  consists  of  a  black,  spongy,  vege- 
table mould,  very  different  from,  and  inferior  in  quality 
to,  the  rich,  alluvial,  dyked  land  of  the  head-waters  of 
the  Bay  of  Fundy,  hereafter  to  be  described.  At  the 
mouths  of  nearly  all  the  rivers  which  empty  themselves 
into  the  Atlantic,  along  the  shores  of  New  England  and 
New  Brunswick,  such  inferior  marsh  lands  are  met  with. 
They  abound  in  vegetable  matter,  yield  large  crops  of 
hay  in  favourable  seasons ;  but  when  dyked  round  and 
defended  from  the  sea,  rarely  form  rich  and  productive 
corn-bearing  land.  Like  our  peaty  or  fenny  soils  at 
home,  they  are  propitious  to  green  crops  and  the  growth 
of  straw,  but  do  not  generally  fill  the  ear. 

The  marsh  land  of  St  John  lies  in  a  narrow  valley, 
bordered  by  high  ground  on  each  side,  but  itself  very 
little  elevated  above  the  sea.  The  upper  end  of  the  flat 
is  only  two  feet  above  high-water  mark ;  but  as  the  tide 
rises  here  twenty-seven  feet,  its  height  is  considerable 
above  mean-water  level,  and  the  entrance  of  high  tides 
is  prevented  by  a  sluice  at  the  mouth  of  the  valley. 

I  visited  what  is  considered  one  of  the  best  farms  on 
this  flat.  It  consists  of  120  acres  of  marsh,  and  100  of 
upland.  The  upland  is  partially  cleared,  and  affords 
pasture  and  firewood,  but  the  marsh  alone  is  under 
arable  culture.     The  whole  is  rented  for  £l50  a-vear 


128 


PRICE  OP  FARMS  NEAR  ST  JOHN. 


currency.  It  requires  high  manuring ;  but  when  well 
cultivated,  any  part  of  It,  the  tenunt  said,  would  produce 
four  tons,  and  I  was  assured  that  five  tons  of  hay  was 
occasionally  reaped  from  such  land.  About  St  John, 
and  generally  along  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  fogs  occasionally 
prevail.  St  John  has  about  a  month  of  summer  fogs, 
which  are  not  considered  prejudicial  to  health  ;  and 
though  unfavourable  to  Indian  corn,  they  encourage  the 
growth  of  grass.  Turnip  culture  has  extended  very 
much  during  the  last  three  or  four  years  in  the  province ; 
and  upon  this  dyked  land  farm,  and  on  those  of  Dr 
Peters  and  Mr  Davidson^  both  within  a  mile  or  two  of 
St  John,  I  saw  excellent  crops  of  this  root. 

That  of  Dr  Peters  is  an  upland  farm,  the  soil  a  light 
granitic  sand,  and  gravel,  naturally  poor,  and  exhausted 
by  previous  tenants.  The  practice  of  tenants  hitherto, 
in  this  neighbourhood,  had  been  the  same  in  principle  as 
I  had  already  seen  in  so  many  other  places — to  take  a 
crop  of  oats,  lay  down  to  grass,  and  cut  as  long  as  any- 
thing was  to  be  got,  then  to  try  oats  again,  followed  by 
grass  as  before ;  and  when  to  such  alternations  it  would 
yield  nothing  more,  to  give  it  up  to  the  landlord.  It 
contains  160  acres,  of  which  50  were  cleared  when  he 
bought  it  for  £320,  or  at  the  rate  of  £10  an  acre  all 
over.  By  manuring  heavily  with  cowfeeders'  and 
slaughter-house  manure,  which  is  here  got  for  sixpence 
sterling  a  cart,  he  is  compelling  the  exhausted  land  to 
yield  beautiful  crops.   , 

The  adjoining  farms,  containing  120  acres  of  upland, 
similar  to  that  of  Dr  Peters,  and  40  acres  of  marsh, 
capable  of  growing  ninety  tons  of  hay,  with  house  and 
barns,  was  on  sale  at  the  price  of  £600. 

These  farms  are  near  a  good  market,  but  they  are  on 
an  old  slate  country,  distinguished  for  thin,  cold,  poor, 
and  gravelly  soils,  over  which,  with  the  exception  of  a 
few  more  favoured  spots,  only  scattered  clearings  and  a 


RATES  OF  WAGES  IN  NEW  BRUNSWICK. 


129 


are  on 
poor, 

I  of  a 
and  a 


sparse  population  extend  nearly  all  the  way  along  the 
northern  shores  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  from  St  John  to 
St  Andrews,  a  distance  of  sixty-five  miles.  It  is  repul- 
sive, therefore,  to  the  emigrant,  and  will  be  occupied  and 
tilled  much  more  slowly  than  some  of  those  inland  parts 
of  the  province  of  which  I  have  already  spoken. 

Dr  Peters  had  two  farm-servants,  to  each  of  whom  he 
paid  £40  a-year  without  board.  Mr  Macarthy,  on  the 
dyked  land,  gave  his  head-man  £30  currency  in  money, 
with  a  house,  fuel,  potatoes,  and  a  cow ;  and  to  his  other 
men  from  £15  to  £25,  besides  their  board.  But  in  St 
John,  and  the  adjoining  counties,  wages  are  lower  than 
in  any  other  part  of  the  province,  because  so  many 
(especially  of  the  Irish)  emigrants  linger  here — as  they 
do  elsewherf  -  near  the  port  they  arrive  at,  and  work 
for  smaller  wages  rather  than  proceed  into  the  interior, 
where  better  land  and  ])etter  wages  are  to  be  obtained. 

The  following  table  t  xhibits  the  average  rate  of  wages 
for  agricultural  labour  in  the  several  counties  of  the 
province,  in  addition  to  board,  washing,  and  lodging,  in 
sterling  money : — 


Bv  THB  Day. 

By  tub  Month. 

For  the 

1  __    . 

1 

COUNTIBS. 

Summer. 

Hay-time 
and 

Summer. 

Hay -time 
and 

wliole  Year. 

Harvest. 

Harvest. 

1                                                                                    ■■ 

£ 

*.    d. 

Jb-    *.    d. 

£    s. 

d. 

£    s.    d. 

£    «.     d. 

'  Saint  John, 

■  •  * 

2     0 

0 

19  10     0 

1  Charlotte,    .    . 

0 

2    3 

0     2     8 

2    7 

8 

3     5     0 

22     0     0 

1  Westmoreland, 

0 

19   0    3    0 

1  12 

6 

3     5     0 

20  13     9 

i  liing's,   .    .     . 

0 

2    e 

0     43 

1   15 

0 

3     6     8 

18  12     6 

j  Queen's,      .    . 

■  ■  ■ 

2     3 

4 

3     3     4 

18  17     6 

i  Suubury,     .     . 

..• 

... 

1  10 

0 

2  10    0 

22    3    4 

York,      .    .    . 

0 

1  10 

0     3     0 

2    3 

4 

3    0    4 

24     0    0 

Castleton,    .    . 

■  •• 

..  * 

2    0 

0 

3    0    0 

25    0    0 

Albert,   .    •    . 

• .  • 

2    5 

0 

.  •  • 

25    0    0 

Kent,      .    .     . 

... 

... 

•  •  • 

... 

25     0    0 

Northumberland, 

... 

... 

2  10 

0 

3     0    0 

27     0    0 

The  wages  at  the  present  time  in  Berwickshire  (Scot- 


VOL.  I. 


130 


PROSPECTS  OF  THE  LABOURER. 


''  r 


land)  for  an  able-bodied  man,  who  can  manage  a  pair 
of  horses,  is  £14  to  £16  a-year,  with  board  and  lodging. 
The  wages  in  New  Brunswick,  therefore,  even  in  the 
depressed  state  of  home  agriculture,  are  not  so  much 
greater  as  to  induce  the  farm-labourer,  who  can  obtain 
employment,  to  emigrate  to  this  colony  for  the  purpose 
of  working  as  a  labourer.  But  the  prospective  advan- 
tage to  him  is,  that  he  can  obtain  land  for  himself  at 
so  cheap  a  rate,  when — after  working  a  year  or  two  for 
wages,  (which  I  would  recommend  him  contentedly  to 
do,)  till  he  has  obtained  so  much  acquaintance  with 
the  country  and  its  customs  as  to  enable  him  judiciously 
to  select  a  location  for  himself — he  has  saved  money 
enough  to  pay  the  first  instalment  for  his  land,  and 
keep  his  family  during  the  first  winter  season. 


CHAPTEE    V. 

By  steamboat  from  St  John  to  Portland,  in  Maine,  and  thence  by  rail- 
way to  Newhaven,  in  Connecticut. — Alleged  rudeness  of  American 
manners. — Country  houses  along  the  approach  to  Boston. — Drought 
in  New  England. — Farming  in  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts. — 
Diffusion  of  agricultural  periodicals. — Cider-making  in  Connecticut. — 
Yale  College. — Number  of  Students. — Expense  of  residence. — Inferior 
position  of  professional  men. — Salaries  of  clergymen. — Estimation  of 
lawyers  and  medical  men  ravcuring  of  quacks  in  the  majority  of 
the  States. — Medical  schi...-.  iu  the  United  States. — Opening  for 
European  medical  prar',  .  i-.  —Elm-trees  of  Newhaven. — Tree- 
toad.— Fairhaven  ;  its  oyst  -  uJe. — Two  species  of  American  oysters 
of  large  size. — Consumption  of  oysters  in  Massachusetts. — Railway  to 
Albany  up  the  Housatonic  valley. — Light  soils  and  Indian  corn  of 
this  valley. — Post-tertiary  clays  and  sands  of  the  upper  valley  of  the 
Hudson  River  and  of  Lake  Champlain. — Natural  forests  which  grow 
upon  them. — Power  of  their  soDs  to  resist  drought. — Exhalation  from 
the  leaves  of  plants. — Relation  of  the  porosity  of  a  soil  to  this  exhala- 
tion.— Why  drained  and  mellowed  clay  is  moister  in  a  hot  summer 
than  undrained. — Schenectady. — Valley  of  the  Mohawk. — Character 
of  its  soils  and  produce. — Rich  bottoms  of  the  Mohawk  resting  on 
the  Uiica  slate. — Broom  corn,  {Sorghum  aaccharatum,)  its  extensive 
cultivation  in  this  valley. — German  flats. — Utica  a  thriving  manufac- 
turing town. — German  population. — Change  in  the  meaning  of  familiar 
words. — Importance  of  keeping  the  English  language  pure. — Choice 
of  judges  by  popular  election. — Apparent  danger  of  this  practice. — 
Titular  judges  and  generals. — Popped  com. — Structure  of  Indian 
com. — Extraction  of  oil  from  this  grain  in  the  Westem  States. — Flour 
of  Indian  corn ;  varieties  in  its  colour ;  used  in  the  adulteration  of 
wheaten  flour. — Digestive  powers  of  animals. — City  of  Rome. — Mr 
Clay. — Verona. — Change  in  the  character  of  the  country. — Arrival  at 
Syracuse. 

Sept.  4. — At  eight  in  the  morning,  I  went  on  board 
the  small  steamer  which  plied  between  St  John  and 


■WBW 


132 


ALLEGED  RUDENESS  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 


the  town  of  Eastport,  in  Maine,  on  my  way  to  the  state 
of  New  York.  Steaming  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy  is  not 
always  agreeable,  even  in  large  boats.  The  day  was 
fine,  however,  and  we  made  the  distance  of  seventy 
miles  to  Eastport  in  about  eight  hours.  There  we  were 
received  on  board  of  a  larger  steamer,  which  conveyed 
us  to  Portland,  in  Maine,  by  half-past  eight  on  the  fol- 
lowing morning,  in  time  for  a  railway  train  about  to 
start  for  Boston.  At  2  p.m.  I  arrived  in  Boston,  being 
five  and  a  half  hours  for  a  hundred  and  eleven  miles,  five 
hours  being  the  usual  time.  Starting  again  at  4  p.m. 
from  Boston  by  the  New  York  line,  I  reached  Newhaven, 
in  Connecticut,  at  11  p.m.,  being  a  hundred  and  sixty 
miles  in  seven  hours,  or  about  twenty-three  miles  an 
hour. 

In  this  rapid  run  through  New  England,  only  three 
things  made  a  permanent  impression  on  my  mind.  These 
were,  first,  that  the  general  rudeness  of  the  people  which 
travellers  speak  of  is  not  perceptible  in  New  England 
generally.  It  may  be  more  striking  in  the  Western 
States ;  but  if,  on  our  home  railways,  all  classes  were 
indiscriminately  mixed  up  in  large  carriages — cars,  as 
they  call  them  here — containing  fifty  or  sixty  people,  I 
doubt  if  Old  England  passengers  would,  as  a  whole, 
behave  as  well  as  those  of  New  England  do.  The 
second  thing  was  the  numerous  country  boxes  or  cot- 
tages, of  all  fashions  and  sizes,  with  their  white  painted 
walls  and  green  jalousies,  which  skirted  the  railway 
during  the  last  twenty  miles  of  our  ride  to  Boston. 
This  is  a  peculiarly  English  feature,  and  indicates  the 
existence  among  our  Transatlantic  kindred  of  that  love 
of  green  fields,  and  of  a  quiet  country  life,  which  char- 
acterises so  much  our  island-home.  By  the  operation 
of  this  feeling,  as  is  the  case  around  our  own  great 
cities,  the  wealth  of  the  growing  commercial  city  of 
Boston  is  carried  out  to  the  country  residences  of  its 


merchan 

expende 

fertilisin 

portion 

my  thirt 

Nova  S 

Maine, 

westwar( 

Connect! 

had  seei 

the  after 

Along 
centre  of 
in  consid 
per  acre 
tobacco, 
crops  are 
continue 

The  fj 
improved 
in  part, 
circulatio 
small  CO! 
inhabitar 
that  not 
by  the  i 
American 
example- 
with  vail 

A  sim 
ing  of  M 
Hampshi 
first  settl 
were  froi 
which  pli 
old  home 


GROWTH  OP  TOBACCO. 


133 


merchants,  and  Is  on  a  thousand  spots  in  course  of  being 
expended  in  clearing  and  improving  the  stony  and  in 
fertilising  the  gravelly  and  sandy  soils  of  which  a  large 
portion  of  the  surface  of  Massachusetts  consists.  And 
my  third  observation  was,  that  though  the  drought  of 
Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick  had  extended  into 
Maine,  its  effects  became  less  perceptible  as  I  advanced 
westward  into  the  other  New  England  States,  till,  in 
Connecticut,  the  fields  looked  as  beautifully  green  as  I 
had  seen  them  last  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mersey;  and 
the  after-grass  was  abundant. 

Along  the  Connecticut  River,  which  runs  through  the 
centre  of  this  state,  there  is  much  good  land,  and  tobacco 
in  considerable  quantity  is  grown  upon  it.  The  produce 
per  acre  is  from  1500  to  2500  pounds  of  marketable 
tobacco.  This  is  a  very  exhausting  crop,  as  all  leaf 
crops  are ;  and  land  must  be  generously  used  which  is  to 
continue  long  to  yield  crops  such  as  these. 

The  farming  of  Connecticut  is  said  to  have  greatly 
improved  during  the  last  fifteen  years,  and  this  is  ascribed 
in  part,  and  probably  with  some  truth,  to  the  extensive 
circulation  and  perusal  of  agricultural  papers.  In  the 
small  country  town  of  Farmington,  (of  two  thousand 
inhabitants,)  for  example,  a  friend  of  mine  assured  me 
that  not  less  that  fifty  agricultural  pap  irs  were  taken  in 
by  the  inhabitants.  And  most  of  these  papers — the 
American  Agriculturist  and  American  Cultivator^  for 
example — are  really  well  and  usefully  got  up,  and  filled 
with  valuable  information. 

A  similar  improving  character  is  ascribed  to  the  farm- 
ing of  Massachusetts,  but  less  is  said  in  favour  of  New 
Hampshire  and  other  parts  of  New  England.  Of  the 
first  settlers  in  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts,  many 
were  from  the  west  and  sf  ath-west  of  England,  from 
which  places  they  naturally  brought  some  parts  of  their 
old  home  husbandry,  as  that  of  apple-growing  and  cider- 


%■ 


134 


YALE  COLLEGE. 


r  ' 


>) 


making.  The  quantity  of  cider  formerly  made  and 
drunk  in  this  state  is  said  to  have  been  immense.  It  is, 
I  suppose,  from  this  being  a  staple  branch  of  husbandry, 
that  our  home  saying,  "  Great  cry  and  little  wool,"  ori- 
ginating in  the  noise  made  at  the  scraping  of  a  pig,  has 
here  assumed  the  form  of  "  More  cry  than  cider." 

9th  Sept. — Newhaven  in  Connecticut  is  known  in 
Europe  chiefly  as  the  seat  of  Yale  College,  one  of  the 
oldest  and  most  respected  of  the  academical  institutions 
in  the  United  States.  It  was  founded  in  1700,  has  at 
present  531  resident  students,  of  whom  386  are  under- 
graduates, 52  students  in  its  theological,  33  in  its  law, 
and  41  in  its  medical  school.*  The  Orthodox  Congre- 
gational body  are  the  prevailing  denomination  in  the 
state  of  Connecticut;  and  Yale  College,  though  in  no 
way  exclusive,  and  having  no  tests,  is  under  the  manage- 
ment of  trustees  and  instructors,  who  are  for  the  most 
part  of  this  denomination.  Rooms  are  provided  in  the 
college  buildings  for  about  one-half  of  the  under-gra- 
duates,  the  rest  living  in  lodgings  in  the  town,  and  all 
dining  in  private  houses  or  clubs,  as  is  the  custom 
in  the  German  universities.  The  total  annual  expense 
of  a  residence  at  college  is  about  150  dollars,  or  a 
little  more  than  thirty  pounds,  made  up  as  follows, — 

Tuition  fees, 33  dollars. 

Room-rent,  &c.,         .         .         .         .         21     — 
Board  (forty  weeks,)  .         .         64  to  90 

Wood,  lights,  washing,  furniture,  ■        ,    ^ 
stationery,  »fec.,    . 


}^ 


Total, 


150  to  215 


So  that  about  200  dollars,  or  £42  sterling,  will,  on  a 
liberal  scale,  defray  all  the  necessary  residence  expenses 
of  under-graduates.     The  medical  institution  in  connec- 

*  The  above  was  in  session  '49-50.  In  the  present  of  '60-51,  the 
number  of  under-graduatea  is  432,  and  the  whole  number  of  resident 
students,  555. 


(( 


POSITION  OP  PROFESSIONAL  MEN. 


135 


tion  with  Yale  College  was  established  in  1810,  and  the 
theological  department  as  late  as  1822.  The  former  has 
six  and  the  latter  four  professors.  I  do  not  know  whether 
the  expense  of  the  purely  professional  education  is  greater 
than  that  of  students  in  arts.  A  step  has  recently  been 
taken  towards  a  provision  of  special  education  for  the 
agricultural  and  higher  industrial  classes,  by  t^  estab- 
lishment of  chairs  of  chemistry  in  its  application  to  the 
arts,  and  of  chemistry  in  its  relations  to  agriculture  and 
physiology.  These  departments  have  been  placed  respec- 
tively under  the  charge  of  Benjamin  Silliman,  jun., 
whose  father  has  so  long  enjoyed  a  European  reputation, 
and,  by  his  writings,  made  his  college  known  where 
otherwise  it  would  never  have  been  heard  of;  and  of 
my  friend,  and  former  pupil,  Professor  Norton,  who  is 
already  favourably  known  in  this  country,  as  well  as  in 
his  own. 

A  circumstance  which  early  strikes  the  European  tra- 
veller in  the  United  States,  is  the  comparatively  small 
consideration  in  which  professional  men  are  held,  and 
the  small  salaries  they  in  general  receive.  The  former 
may  be  supposed  to  arise  from  the  more  universal  dif- 
fusion of  a  certain  amount  of  instruction  than  is  the  case 
in  most  European  countries — and  this  is  no  doubt  in  part 
the  cause.  But  it  is  partly  due  also  to  the  theoretical  and 
practical  political  equality  of  all  citizens,  which  appears 
to  induce,  among  the  masses  of  ordinarily  educated  men, 
an  impression  that  higher  intellectual  gifts  or  attainments 
are,  generally,  speaking,  no  suflScient  reasons  for  social 
distinctions  or  higher  consideration.  Every  man  you 
meet  thinks  himself  capable  of  giving  an  opinion  upon 
questions  of  the  most  diflScult  kind ;  and,  for  the  most 
part,  the  masses  seem,  by  their  choice  at  public  elections, 
to  prefer  to  be  guided  by  the  less  rather  than  by  the  more 
educated  of  their  fellow-citizens. 

In  the  country  districts,  five  to  eight  hundred  dollars 


; '  I 


It 


i'-f^5r>V  iv^w '  *•  * 


•*''"'\.v*/'*'-^»*«'**^'^ *■*"*** -'*-*!»^*«Wk*-'^*-*-*%_. 


■NMM 


13B 


MEDICAL  QUACKERY  IN  THE  STATES. 


are  considered  a  fair  salary  for  a  clergyman.  In  the 
cities,  from  eight  to  twelve  hundred  are  given,  and,  in 
rare  cases,  or  to  especial  favourites,  fifteen  hundred.* 

Of  professional  men,  the  lawyers  succeed  best,  as  the 
same  theoretical  equality  which  makes  a  man  think  his 
own  opinion  as  good  as  his  neighbour's  naturally  pro- 
motes litigation,  and  makes  the  lawyer  necessary,  and 
the  clever  lawyer  sought  after  and  honoured. 

Medical  men  are  perhaps  the  worst  off,  as,  in  most  of 
the  States,  the  educated  physician  has  no  defence  against 
the  quack.  In  only  six  out  of  the  thirty-three  States  are 
there  any  laws  making  licenses  necessary  to  the  practice 
of  medicine,  or  which  place  the  educated  physician  in 
any  respect  in  a  better  position  than  the  pretender :  these 
are  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  the  district  of  Columbia, 
Georgia,  Louisiana,  and  Michigan.  In  the  other  States, 
any  man  may  call  himself  a  doctor,  may  practise,  and 
may  sue  for  his  fees ;  and,  in  many  cases,  a  discerning 
public  prefers  the  self-taught  genius  to  the  man  of  edu- 
cation. 

In  the  United  States  there  are  at  present  thirty-five 
medical  schools,  with  4566  students,  which  send  out  on 
an  average  about  1300  graduates  annually ;  but  it  is  cal- 
culated that,  to  supply  fully  the  demand  of  the  growing 
country,  2500  graduates  should  leave  these  schools  every 
year.  Under  such  circumstances,  quackery  must  abound, 
unless  the  schools  of  Europe  aid  largely  in  adding  to  the 
stock  of  home-made  surgeons  and  physicians. 

The  salaries  paid  to  the  clergy  may  be  taken  as  a  fair 
measure  of  their  status  among  a  Protestant  people. 
Hence,  if  £100  to  £160  a-year  be  the  usual  stipends  paid 
to  the  clergy  as  a  body,  in  a  country  where  the  labouring 
man  and  the  mechanic  obtains  a  considerably  higher 
wage  than  with  us,  the  estimation  in  which  he  is  held 


rae  m  sm 


A  hundred  dollars  are  about  £21  sterling. 


y  ■•'■sS 


THE  TREE-TOAD. 


tsf 


must  also  be  less  elevated  above  that  of  the  working 
classes  than  it  is  in  the  Old  Country.  But  things  will 
probably  alter  as  age  creeps  upon  the  young  States,  and 
as  men  of  leisure  arise,  who  shall  really  have  time,  not 
merely  to  skim  the  surface  of  the  various  departments  of 
knowledge,  but  to  sound  their  depths,  and  bring  up  from 
below  some  of  those  rarer  pearls,  which  long  intellectual 
labour  alone  secures,  but  which  even  unintellectual  men 
can  admire,  and  are  willing  both  to  praise  and  purchase. 

Newhaven  stands  on  a  broad  sandy  and  gravelly  flat, 
which  extends  along  the  head  of  one  of  those  numerous 
bays  which,  at  short  distances,  indent  nearly  the  whole 
of  the  Atlantic  border  of  the  New  England  States. 
The  town  is  regular,  well  built,  and  increasing,  but 
presents  nothing  so  worthy  of  remark  as  the  numerous 
rows  of  elm-trees  with  which  its  public  square  and  some 
of  the  more  private  streets  are  ornamented.  Of  the 
beauty  of  the  American  elm  I  have  already  spoken; 
but  though  it  appears  to  thrive  well  here,  I  saw  none 
possessed  of  that  rare  beauty  which  has  so  often  struck 
rae  in  single  specimens,  groups,  or  rows  of  these  trees 
in  their  native  forests,  or  by  the  sides  of  streams, 
where  art  had  not  yet  interfered  to  alter  the  arrange- 
ments of  nature. 

A  novelty  which  early  arrested  my  attention  at  New- 
haven  was  the  chirping  or  whistling  of  the  tree-toad, 
Ilyla  versicolor^  which,  from  the  noise  one  hears  filling 
the  whole  air  as  evening  approaches,  must  live  in  great 
numbers  among  the  branches  of  the  elm-trees.  Of 
toads  possessing  a  peculiar  prehensile  apparatus  resem- 
bling claws,  which  enables  them  to  cling  to  the  under 
side  of  smooth  branches,  which  devour  insects,  and  are 
usually  found  upon  trees,  there  are  at  least  two  species 
in  the  United  States — the  northern  tree-toad  and  the 
squirrel  tree-toad.  The  former  is  the  only  one  generally 
known  in  New  England  and  New  York.     It  is  about 


IN 


u\ 


138 


ABUNDANCE  OP  OYSTERS. 


n 


two  inches  in  length,  is  broad  across  the  head  and  shoul- 
ders, has  an  irregular  dusky  cross  on  its  back,  and  varies 
in  colour  at  will,  from  grey  to  green.  This  variation  in 
colour  makes  it  difficult  to  be  seen  upon  trees.  During 
damp  weather  it  is  peculiarly  clamorous,  especially  in 
the  fall  of  the  year.  It  is  here  considered,  along  with 
the  fall  of  the  leaf,  as  one  of  the  sensible  harbingers  of 
winter.  As  evening  approached,  these  animals  began 
to  chirp  in  the  trees  opposite  my  window ;  and  from 
that  time  till  I  fell  asleep  in  bed,  the  air  was  filled  with 
a  low  whistling  or  whispering  sound,  somewhat  resem- 
bling a  sharp  rustling  of  the  wind  among  the  leaves. 
The  tree-toad  is  rarely  heard  in  the  morning,  when 
a  perfect  stillness  prevails.  It  is  difficult  to  convey  an 
exact  idea  of  the  sound  this  animal  emits,  as  it  is  some- 
thing of  a  ventriloquist,  and  often  deceives  the  most 
attentive  observers,  who  are  looking  for  and  endea- 
vouring to  catch  it.  The  southern  or  squirrel  tree-toad 
is  brown  in  colour,  and  has  a  length  of  only  an  inch 
and  a  quarter.     I  have  not  heard  its  note,  if  it  has  any. 

Opposite  to  Newhaven,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
bay,  stands  Fairhaven,  a  town  with  three  conspicuous 
churches,  which  is  supported  entirely  by  its  trade  in 
oysters.  All  along  this  coast,  from  the  Gulf  of  St  Law- 
rence to  the  Delaware  and  the  Chesapeake,  oysters 
abound,  either  naturally  or  in  consequence  of  artificial 
importation,  and  are  an  article  of  extensive  consumption 
and  large  traffic.  They  are  a  constant  dish  at  table, 
sometimes  as  often  as  twice  a-day.  They  are  shelled, 
and,  with  the  liquor  contained  in  the  shells,  are  sold  at 
about  a  dollar  a  gallon.  In  winter,  these  shelled  oysters, 
frozen  in  their  own  juice,  are  sent  by  the  railways  in  ton 
loads,  and  are  greatly  prized  in  the  interior. 

It  would  appear  that  the  oyster  abounded  in  most  of 
the  New  England  bays  when  the  country  was  first 
colonised ;  but  the  supply  for  the  markets  of  all  the  large 


towns  IS 
of  New 
Chesapea 
coast — til 
commonl 
ovstcrs. 
English  i 
the  north 
arrive  at 
southern 
length,  b 
The  fis 
the  oystei 
the  south( 
layers  nef 
and  flavc 
enough  to 
nity  of  ob 
oyster-tra 
its  extent 
Dr  Angus 
trade  in  I 
setts,  he  si 
and  they 
beds — or 
chiefly  sit 
40,000  bi 
imported, 
about  fort; 
ing  one  hi 
year.     In 
and  those 
for  market 
employed 


OYSTER-TRADE  OP  BOSTON. 


f8» 


towns  is  now  obtained  from  the  south,* — from  the  bays 
of  New  York  chiefly,  and  from  the  Delaware  and  the 
Chesapeake.  Two  species  of  oyster  are  known  on  this 
coast — the  Oatrea  horealis  and  the  Oatrea  virginiana^ 
commonly  distinguished  as  the  northern  and  southern 
oysters.  Both  grow  to  a  large  size  compared  with  our 
English  and  Scotch  oysters.  A  common  size  of  shell  in 
the  northern  species  is  five  and  six  inches,  though  some 
arrive  at  twelve  inches  in  length  and  six  in  breadth :  the 
southern  shell  often  measures  twelve  to  fifteen  inches  in 
length,  by  not  more  than  three  inches  in  breadth. 

The  fishermen  of  New  England  and  New  York  import 
the  oysters  from  their  native  beds,  on  the  mud  banks  of 
the  southern  shores,  in  a  young  state,  and  plant  them  in 
layers  near  their  own  homes,  where  they  increase  in  size 
and  flavour,  and   grow  in  numbers,  though  not  fast 
enough  to  supply  the  home  demand.     I  had  no  opportu- 
nity of  obtaining  accurate  information  in  regard  to  the 
oyster-trade  which  supports  the  town  of  Fairhaven  ;  but 
its  extent  may  in  some  measure  be  judged  of  by  what 
Dr  Augustus  A.  Gould  has  stated  in  regard  to  the  same 
trade  in  Boston.     The  oysters  consumed  in  Massachu- 
setts, he  says,  amount  to  about  100,000  bushels  a-year, 
and  they  are  sold  wholesale  at  a  dollar  a  bushel.     The 
beds — or  acalpa^   as  they  are  called  in  Scotland — are 
chiefly  situated  at  Wellfleet,  near  Cape  Cod.    About 
40,000  bushels  of  small  young  oysters  are  annually 
imported,  and  planted  in  this  place.     Thirty  vessels,  of 
about  forty  tons  each,  are  engaged  in  the  trade,  employ- 
ing one  hundred  and  twenty  men  for  three  months  in  the 
year.    In  the  autumn  the  oysters  are  taken  up  again, 
and  those  are  selected  which  have  grown  to  a  proper  size 
for  market.     The  vast  quantities  of  oyster-shells  one  sees 
employed  as  rubbish  to  fill  up  hollows  in  the  outskirts  of 


Dr  Qould,  Invertebrata  of  Maaaachusetta,  p.  358. 


140 


LARGE   HOTELS. 


CLA 


I 


Boston,  arc  proof  enough  to  a  stranger  of  the  vast  con- 
sumption of  this  fish  which  must  there  take  place. 

In  tlie  bay  of  Newhaven  there  are  certain  public  layers 
or  beds,  whicli  are  open  to  every  comer  at  certain  pre- 
scribed seasons  of  the  year ;  but  there  are  also  numerous 
private  layers,  which  are  the  property  of  individuals, 
whose  rights  are  strictly  preserved  by  law.  They  form, 
in  fact,  their  stock  in  trade. 

10th  Sept. — After  spending  four  days  at  Newhaven, 
I  started  this  morning  early  for  Syracuse,  in  Western 
New  York,  in  company  with  Professor  Norton.  The 
annual  fair  or  show  of  the  New  York  State  Agricul- 
tural Society  was  to  be  held  at  that  place  hi  a  few 
days,  and  I  had,  at  the  request  of  the  Council  of  the 
Society,  agreed  to  deliver  the  Annual  address.  For  the 
first  eighteen  miles  we  skirted  Long  Island  Sound,  on 
the  New  York  line.  At  Bridgeport  we  took  the  Housa- 
tonic  line,  which  runs  inland  along  the  river  of  the  same 
name  for  ninety-seven  miles,  when  we  joined  the  western 
line,  which  carried  us  to  Albany,  a  further  distance  of 
thirty-eight  miles.  The  train  was  heavy,  the  number  of 
passengers  large,  and  the  delay  caused  by  the  luggage 
considerable  ;  so  that  we  did  not  arrive  at  our  hotel  in 
Albany  till  about  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening.  In  this 
city  there  are  several  good  hotels.  We  went  to  Dela- 
van's,  which,  like  several  of  the  others,  is  a  temperance 
house,  and  is  particularly  convenient  for  railway  travel- 
lers. About  a  hundred  and  fifty  of  our  fellow-passengers 
by  the  railway  came  to  the  same  house,  and  were  all 
accommodated.  About  an  hour  after  our  arrival,  tea 
was  announced,  and  we  all  sat  down  together  in  the 
dining-hall.  On  the  following  morning,  all  who  were 
going  west  were  called  an  hour  and  a  quarter  before  the 
train  started ;  In  half-an-hour  after  this,  breakfast  was 
on  the  table  ;  in  another  quarter,  carts  were  at  the  door 
for  the  luggage ;  and  at  six  A.  M.  we  were  again  steam- 


ing from 
New  Yor 

The  d 
Valley, 
from  the 
slate  anc 
tinued  nu 
was  light 
and  sand 
culture 
grain  as  \ 
stuff  we 
occasional 
cially  po( 
River,  to\ 
contains  n 
clay  whicl 
north  and 

This  f(j 
Champlaii 
lliver  in  t 
the  under 
rocks  or 
coloured  < 
existing  s] 
sometimes 
sustaining 
vegetatior 
trict  over 
as  the  up 
more  or 
The  stiff  ^ 
varjous  ki 
the  clay  h 
hot  suns  0 
the  clay  : 


CLAYS  AND  riNE-BARRENS  AROUND  ALBANY.      141 

ing  from  Albany,  along  the  railway,  towards  Western 
New  York. 

The  day  was  fine  as  we  came  up  the  Housatonic 
Valley.  Soon  after  leaving  Newhaven,  we  passed 
from  the  new  red  sandstone  of  Connecticut  to  the  old 
slate  and  metamorphic  rocks,  and  along  these  we  con- 
tinued most  of  the  way  to  Albany.  The  soil  in  general 
was  light  and  stony,  resting  for  the  most  part  on  gravelly 
and  sandy  drift.  Such  light  soils  are  adapted  to  the 
culture  of  Indian  corn,  and  we  saw  m^ny  fields  of  this 
grain  as  we  carao  along.  It  was  indeed  the  only  bread- 
stuff we  saw  duriug  the  day,  with  the  exception  of  an 
occasional  field  of  buckwheat,  where  the  soil  was  espe- 
cially poor.  The  rolling  upper  valley  of  the  Hudson 
River,  towards  which  we  descend  on  approaching  Albany, 
contains  much  strong  yellow  clay,  the  same  post-tertiary 
clay  which  borders  Lake  Champlain,  and  thence  stretches 
north  and  east  along  the  banks  of  the  St  Lawrence. 

This  formation  is  a  hundred  feet  thick  upon  Lake 
Champlain,  and  it  forms  high  banks  along  the  Hudson 
lliver  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Albany.  It  consists,  in 
the  under  part,  of  stiff  blue  clay,  resting  upon  the  grooved 
rocks  or  upon  beds  of  drift;  above  this,  of  a  lighter 
coloured  clay,  pale  brown  or  drab,  containing  shells  of 
existing  species ;  and,  over  all,  a  deposit  of  yellow  sand, 
sometimes  loamy  and  fertile,  but  often  barren,  and 
sustaining  only  stunted  pines.  The  soils,  the  natural 
vegetation,  and  the  agricultural  capabilities  of  the  dis- 
trict over  which  this  formation  extends,  vary  according 
as  the  upper  sand  remains  on  the  surface,  or  has  ber  .i 
more  or  less  completely  removed  by  naturr*^  causes. 
The  stiff  clays  bear  natural  forests  of  Lard  wo  jd  trees  of 
varjous  kinds ;  but  when  cleared,  and  put  under  crop, 
the  clay  hardens,  cracks,  and  becomes  parched  under  the 
hot  suns  of  summer.  The  sandy  loams  which  rest  upon 
the  clay  nourish  numerous  pines  stretching  along  the 


',»* 


142 


ABSORBENT  POWER  OF  THE  SOIL. 


r  >.. 


'^ 


country  as  broad  pine-barrens,  on  which  the  beautiful 
white  pine  is  the  predominating  and  characteristic  tree ; 
while  the  pure  sands,  which  form  the  uppermost  layer, 
are  covered  by  the  yellow  pine  {Pinus  mitis.)  Of  these 
latter,  when  brought  into  cultivation,  experience  has 
shown  that  the  loamy  sands  are  less  affected  by  the 
heat  than  the  stiff  clays,  but  that  the  apparently  purer 
sands  bear  thp  drought  better  than  either.  The  mecha- 
nical porosity  of  a  soil,  in  fact,  has  almost  as  much  to 
do  with  its  power  of  resisting  scorching  heats  in  sum- 
mer, as  any  other  of  its  properties,  either  physical  or 
chemical. 

This  will  appear  very  plain  by  a  reference  to  one 
consideration  only.  The  leaves  of  plants  exhale  watery 
vapour  in  large  quantity,  and  this  quantity  increases 
with  the  intensity  of  the  summer  heat.  No  experiments 
have  been  made  on  this  subject  in  America,  I  believe ; 
but  in  the  cooler  climate  of  England,  an  acre  of  our 
cultivated  crops  has  been  estimated  to  exhale  from  its 
leaves,  during  the  four  months  of  summer,  about  three 
million  pounds  of  water  ;*  while  in  the  same  time  there 
falls,  of  available  rain,  not  more  than  eight  hundred 
thousand  pounds — little  more  than  a  fourth  of  the 
exhalation.  The  soil  and  the  plant,  therefore,  must 
inhale  from  the  air  during  the  cool  night  far  more  water 
than  they  derive  from  the  rain  that  falls,  however  grate- 
ful and  refreshing  to  plants  this  may  be. 

Now,  the  more  porous  a  given  soil  is  made,  the  more 
absorbent  it  is  of  moisture  from  the  air,  and  hence  one 
reason  why  light  soils  suffer  less  from  drought  than 
heavy  soils — why  heavy  clay  soils  are  so  much  improved 

*  Mr  Lawes,  in  some  recently  published  experiments,  found  the 
quantity  of  water  exhaled  to  be  less  than  it  was  estimated  to  be  from 
the  experiments  referred  to  in  the  text.  But  his  results  also  show  that 
plants  must  derive  moisture  from  some  other  source  than  the  rain-water 
that  sinks  into  the  soil. 


VALLEY  OP  THE  MOHAWK  BIYER. 


143 


by  under  drainage,  which  prevents  the  sun  from  baking, 
hardening,  and  making  them  compact  and  non-absor- 
bent— why  drained  land  is  in  reality  molster  in  summer, 
because  more  porous  than  the  undralned — and  why  even 
In  our  tropical,  sun-burned,  sugar  colonies,  thorough- 
drainage  has  been  found  to  promote  the  growth  of  the 
cane  on  stiff  clay  soils,  and  to  Increase  the  yield  of 
sugar. 

11th  Sept. — On  leaving  Albany,  we  climbed  a  steep 
gradient  of  one  in  eighty,  till  we  reached  the  upper  level 
of  the  Hudson  Valley.  We  then  crossed  about  sixteen 
miles  of  a  rolling  country — as  a  surface  of  rounded  hills 
and  ridges  succeeding  each  other  Is  here  graphically 
called — of  pale  yellow  post-tertiary  sand,  to  Schenectady, 
a  town  of  eight  thousand  Inhabitants,  situated  in  the 
valley  of  the  Mohawk.  This  sandy  tract  forms  a  part 
of  the  pine-barren  of  which  I  have  spoken,  as  overlying 
the  post-tertiary  clays  of  the  Champlain  and  Hudson 
River  valleys. 

The  Mohawk  is  a  river  of  considerable 
falls  Into  the  Hudson  from  the  west,  nearly  opposite  to 
the  city  of  Troy,  and  about  eight  miles  above  Albany. 
The  valley  through  which  It  flows,  and  which  the  rail- 
way follows,  occupies  a  distinguished  place  In  the  early 
history  of  the  State  of  New  York.  It  was  the  site  of 
many  of  the*  earliest  settlements  In  this  western  country, 
and  the  scene  of  many  Interesting  passages  with  the 
native  Indians.  It  is  still  the  first  fine  valley  which 
attracts  the  longing  regards  of  the  European  emigrants, 
whom  the  Erie  canal  and  the  railroad  carry  In  thousands 
along  the  banks  of  the  Mohawk  River  towards  new  homes 
In  a  still  farther  west. 

As  we  rushed  up  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  the  Erie 
canal  accompanied  us  on  a  higher  level  on  the  right  or 
opposite  bank.  It  was  crowded  with  vessels  going  and 
coming,  some  laden  with  piles  of  casks  filled  already 


size,  which 


■  •} 


ii 


144 


CULTURE  OF  BROOM  CORN. 


Ii 


I 


with  the  flour  of  the  present  season.  On  the  uplands 
and  slopes,  sand  and  gravel  prevailed,  and  there  buck- 
wheat and  Indian  corn  were  cultivated.  The  low  allu- 
vial flats  or  intervales,  of  which  many  occurred  in  the 
bottom  of  the  valley,  bore  heavy  crops  of  Indian  corn, 
(maize,)  and  of  broom  corn — a  crop  unknown  to  our 
home  farmers. 

The  valley  of  the  Mohawk,  when  compared  with  the 
more  western  parts  of  the  State,  is  distinguished  agri- 
culturally by  its  production  of  these  two  kinds  of  corn  ; 
while  the  western  counties,  from  the  Oswego  Eiver  to  the 
Genesee  Eiver,  and  onwar4s  even  to  Buffalo,  form  the 
wheat  region  which,  under  the  name  of  the  Genesee 
country,  attracted  so  much  attention  as  an  eligible  place 
of  settlement  towards  the  close  of  the  last  century. 

Sixteen  miles  above  Schenectady  we  passed  *he  town 
of  Amsterdam,  above  which  the  Mohawk  River  runs  for 
a  great  many  miles  through  the  Utica  slate.  This  slate, 
an  upper  part  of  the  lower  Silurian  rocks,  is  calcareous, 
crumbles  very  readily  under  the  influence  of  the  weather, 
and  forms  a  rich,  clayey,  yet  free  and  open  soil.  It  is 
when  flowing  over  this  formation  that  the  Mohawk  Val- 
ley expands  into  extensive  flats  of  great  beauty,  now 
on  this  side  of  the  river  and  now  on  that,  where  apple 
orchards  abound,  and  fields  of  Indian  and  broom  corn 
cover  the  rich  alluvial  soils. 

Of  these  two  crops,  the  broom  corn  {Sorghum  sacclia- 
ratum)  was  the  most  abundant  for  ten  miles  above  and 
below  the  Little  Falls  of  the  Mohawk.  To  the  eye  of 
a  stranger,  who  sees  it  for  the  first  time,  it  resembles 
a  crop  of  Indian  corn ;  it  is  nearly  of  the  same  height 
and  strength  of  stem,  but  it  has  a  narrower  leaf  and 
a  branching  head.  This  head  or  top  is  the  only  part 
which  is  collected.  When  the  fruit  first  appears,  this 
long  head,  which  bears  the  seed,  is  bent  down  at  a 
right  angle  about  two,  or  two  and  a  half,  feet  from  the 


top,  so  8 
sap.  Tt 
when  it  i 
of  one  0 
The  seed 
sorted,  a: 
into  broo 
of  almost 
able  loca 
Above 
moved  b 

• 

and  Stan 
Such  fie 
large  dn 
the  entir( 
is  eighty 
a  beautif 
which  th( 
immense. 

Them 
the  settle 
Valley, 
this  quai 
den.  Op  J 
and  the  i 
villages, 
to  whom 

Theci 
right  ban 
sion  of  t 
It  is  a  ( 
inhabitar 
flourishin 
its  woolle 
of  its  cot 

VOL.  I 


GERMAN   PLATS  AND  SETTLEMENTS. 


top,  SO  as  to  break  the  stem  and  arrest  the  flow  of  tho 
sap.  This  upper  part  is  then  left  a  few  days  to  dry, 
when  it  is  cut  off  with  a  knife,  leaving  a  high  stubble 
of  one  or  two  feet,  which  is  afterwards  ploughed  in. 
The  seed  is  beat  out  of  the  tops,  which  are  trimmed  and 
sorted,  and  are  then  ready  for  sale  or  for  manufacture 
into  brooms  on  the  spot.  Brooms  of  this  material  are 
of  almost  universal  use  in  North  America,  and  in  favour- 
able localities  it  generally  proves  a  profitable  crop. 

Above  Little  Falls,  where  thriving  woollen  mills  are 
moved  by  the  water  power,  Indian  corn  alone,  ripe,  cut, 
and  standing  in  sheaves,  covered  the  cultivated  fields. 
Such  fields,  along  with  extensive  meadows,  on  which 
large  droves  of  milk-cows  cropped  the  aftermath,  filled 
the  entire  bottom  of  the  valley.  About  Herkimer,  which 
is  eighty  miles  from  Albany,  the  flat  lands  expand  into 
a  beautiful  broad  valley,  called  the  German  Flats,  on 
which  the  quantity  of  Indian  corn  raised  appeared  quite 
immense. 

The  name  German  Flats  indicates  the  native  home  of 
the  settlers  who  first  colonised  this  part  of  the  Mohawk 
Valley.  Indeed,  places  with  German  names  abound  in 
this  quarter.  Along  the  river  lie  the  townships  of  Min- 
den,  Oppenheim,  Manheim,  Danube,  and  Frankfort ; 
and  the  mixed  English  and  German  sign-boards  in  the 
villages,  shoV  that  there  are  numbers  of  the  inhabitants 
to  whom  German  is  still  the  more  familiar  tongue. 

The  city  of  Utica,  fifteen  miles  farther,  stands  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  river,  in  the  midst  of  a  broad  expan- 
sion of  the  valley,  resembling  the  bed  of  a  great  lake. 
It  is  a  clean  thriving  place,  of  about  fifteen  thousand 
inhabitants,  has  a  striking  main  street — is  the  seat  of 
flourishing  manufactories — is  distinguished  especially  for 
its  woollen  mills,  but  is  adding  rapidly  also  to  the  number 
of  its  cotton  factories.     It  is  admirably  situated  for  the 


VOL.  I. 


K 


146 


USE  OP  TOWN  FOR  TOWNSHIP. 


trade  of  the  Western  States.  That  it  is  surrounded  by 
a  large  German  population  is  shown  by  the  Gasthaus, 
Buchhandlung,  and  other  German  announcements  which 
are  to  be  read  in  abundance  on  the  fronts  of  the  houses, 
and  over  the  shop-windows. 

Winter  rye  appears  to  be  sown  very  early  in  this 
State.  I  had  seen  a  field  already  sown  upon  the  sandy 
pine  plain  between  Albany  and  Schenectady ;  but  near 
Herkimer,  on  the  banks  of  the  Mohawk,  I  passed  one 
already  above  ground,  {11th  Sept.)  and  forming  a  beauti- 
ful green  braird. 

Fourteen  miles,  chiefly  through  sandy,  gravelly,  and 
swampy  barrens,  brought  us  to  Rome,  an  aspiring  vil- 
lage in  a  town(ship)  of  the  same  name — remarkable 
chiefly  for  its  large  hotels,  and  for  the  outlines  of  fine 
streets  which  are  hereafter  to  be  built  up. 

Among  the  new  meanings  attached  to  old  words  which 
one  observes  in  this  State  of  New  York,  is  the  sense  in 
which  the  word  town  is  used  even  in  legal  phraseology. 
For  brevity's  sake,  I  suppose,  the  word  township  has 
gone  out  of  use,  and  town  has  taken  its  place.  A  county 
is  divided  into  so  many  towns;  and  in  a  town,  so  many 
villages,  or  even  a  city  may  spring  up.  This  change  in 
the  meaning  of  a  familiar  word  perplexes  very  much 
the  stranger,  is  productive  of  inconvenience  here,  and  is 
much  more  injurious  to  the  maintenance  of  a  pure  com- 
mon speech  between  the  Old  Country  and  the  New,  than 
any  introduction  of  absolutely  new  words  can  ever  be. 

Thus,  a  town  in  western  New  York  may  be  a  square 
of  land,  without  a  house  or  an  inhabitant  upon  it ;  and  in 
some  places  a  street  is  merely  a  road  through  a  partially 
cleared  township.  Then  all  collections  of  houses  are 
necessarily  called  either  villages  or  cities.  Where  places 
are  incorporated,  they  become  corporate  villages ;  and  if 
the  aspirations  of  the  inhabitants  make  them  discontented 
with  this  inferior  title,  they  make  influence  with  the 


legislatur 
themselv( 
to  the  dig 
enriches 
significati 
the  langu 

In  a  to 
assumes  i 
Caesar,  th 
Then  a  s 
these  are 
West,  No: 
which  lea 
and  this  1 
the  town  c 

Of  com 

*  In  Bartl 
explanation  o 
tomary  for  n 
each  other  in 
med — this  ro 
Thus  the  me 
for  the  camp 
cari.p  No,  3- 
convenient  d 

"The  term 
mutual  co-op 
pet  bill  for  a 
ingly  makes 
along  a  chart 
Onondaga's 
rence's  plank 

"  This  is  1( 
on  at  Albany 

"  Generally 
local  project, 
sometimes  th 
como  to  an  u 
not  oppose  a 
provided  the 
in  return. 


MANY  VILLAGES  IN  A  TOWN. 


lit 


legislature,  and,  by  means  of  a  little  log-rolling^'^  get 
themselves  separated  from  the  town,  and  raised  at  once 
to  the  dignity  of  a  city.  The  introduction  of  new  words 
enriches  a  language,  but  to  give  an  old  word  a  new 
signification  not  only  perplexes  the  hearer,  but  makes 
the  language  poorer. 

In  a  township,  a  village  springs  up  which  naturally 
assumes  the  same  name — in  the  town  of  Pompey  or 
Caesar,  the  villages  of  Pompey  or  Caesar  spring  up. 
Then  a  second  village,  a  third,  a  fourth,  a  fifth,  and 
these  are  called  respectively,  Pompey  East,  Pompey 
West,  North,  and  South.  And,  finally,  at  the  cross  roads 
which  lead  to  these  several  villages  another  springs  up, 
and  this  becomes  Pompey  four  Corners^  and  all  these  in 
the  town  of  Pompey. 

Of  course,  the  attaching  of  a  new  meaning  to  a  few 

*  In  Bartlett's  Dictionary  of  Americanisms,  we  have  the  following 
explanation  of  Log-rolling : — "  In  the  lumber  regions  of  Maine,  it  is  cus- 
tomary for  men  of  different  logging  camps  to  appoint  days  for  helping 
each  other  in  rolling  the  logs  to  the  river,  after  they' are  felled  and  trim- 
med— this  rolling  being  about  the  hai'dest  work  incident  to  the  business. 
Thus  the  men  of  three  or  four  camps  will  unite,  say  on  Monday,  to  roll 
for  the  camp  No.  1 — on  Tuesday  for  camp  No.  2 — on  Wednesday  for 
cai".p  No.  3 — and'  so  on  through  the  whole  number  of  camps  within 
convenient  distance  of  each  other. 

"  The  term  has  been  adopted  in  legislation  to  signify  a  like  system  of 
mutual  co-operation.  For  instance,  a  member  from  St  Lawrence  has  a 
pet  bill  for  a  plank  road  which  he  wants  pushed  through ;  he  accord- 
ingly makes  a  bargain  with  a  member  from  Onondaga  who  is  coaxing 
along  a  charter  for  a  bank,  by  which  St  Lawrence  agrees  to  vote  for 
Onondaga's  bank,  provided  Onondaga  will  vote  in  turn  ioi  St  Law- 
rence's plank  road. 

"  This  is  legislative  log-rolling ;  and  thei'e  is  abundance  of  it  carried 
on  at  Albany  every  winter. 

"  Generally  speaking,  the  subject  of  the  log-rolling  is  some  merely 
local  project,  interesting  only  to  the  people  of  a  certain  district  ;  but 
sometimes  there  is  party  log-rolling,  where  the  Whigs,  for  instance,  will 
come  to  an  understanding  with  the  Democrats,  that  the  former  shall 
not  oppose  a  certain  Democratic  measure  merely  on  party  grounds, 
provided  the  Democrats  will  be  equally  tender  to  some  Whig  measure 
in  return.  J.  Inman." 


148    IMPORTANCE  OF  PURITY  IN  THE  ENGLISH  TONGUE. 


>  I 


igle  words  is  of 


I'eat 


itself:  but  I 


consequence 

mention  this  instance  for  the  purpose  of  illustrating  the 
way  in  which  changes  may  insensibly  be  induced  in  our 
mother  tongue,  while  the  words  in  use  remain  the  same. 
Where  two  countries  speaking  the  same  language  have 
diflFerent  literary  and  courtly  centres,  the  gradual  growth 
of  differences  in  the  speech  can  scarcely  be  avoided. 
Such  causes  of  diversity  between  the  older  forms  of 
speech  which  prevailed  at  the  same  period  in  London  and 
Edinburgh  anciently  existed  in  the  rival  courts  of  those 
cities ;  diversities  of  a  similar  origin  have  given  rise  to 
the  now  distinct  dialects,  almost  distinct  languages,  of 
Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Iceland;  and  if  the  German 
tongue  remains  still  common  and  intelligible  over  the 
whole  Fatherland,  it  is  because  a  common  literature  still 
binds  the'  people  of  the  various  governments  together, 
and  a  common  theatre  and  drama  mould  the  speech  of 
Vienna,  Berlin,  and  Hanover,  in  spite  of  the  peculiarities 
of  fashion  which  give  a  special  character  to  the  pronun- 
ciation and  choice  of  words  in  each  of  the  several  courts. 
No  language,  probably,  ever  existed  which  it  is  of  so 
much  importance  to  mankind  to  preserve  pure  as  the 
English.  It  is  now  spread  over  so  vast  a  portion  of  the 
civilised  globe  that  in  it  we  may  almost  hope  to  see 
realised,  for  the  intercommunion  of  the  people,  what  the 
Latin  tongue  was  to  the  learned  of  former  centuries.  It 
is,  emphatically,  the  language  of  constitutional  freedom 
and  of  civilised  progress.  If  the  community  of  speech 
puts  within  the  reach  of  the  most  ignorant  and  ill- 
intentioned  editor  of  the  meanest  periodical,  in  either 
country,  the  foolish  or  ill-natured  sayings  of  his 
brethren  of  the  craft  in  England,  America,  Africa,  or 
Australia,  and  thus  enables  bad  men  to  excite  evil  pas- 
sions, to  create  enmities,  and  to  awaken  national  bitter- 
ness, which,  for  the  welfare  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  and 
the  general  good  of  mankind,  it  is  desirable  rather  to 


Jl 

soothe  d< 
which  m 
its  triun 
remotest 
and  puls( 
no  less  r 
war  an 
ancient  t 
immediat 
doctrines 
taineer. 

Ajiionc 

papers  of 

to  the  ele 

day  of  I 

officers  to 

of  twentj 

A 

A 

A 

This  pr 

and  for  a 

my  home 

moat  susp 

introducec 

This  pr 

York.    Tl 

State  Con^ 

be  chosen 

great  or  i 

exercised, 

exceed  eig 

the  elector 

town  meet 

are  paid  a 

sions,  and 


I  r 


our 


JUDGES  ELECTED  BY   POPULAR  SUFFRAGE.        149 

soothe  down  and  suppress — it  forms  a  bond  of  union  also 
which  makes  the  intellect  of  this  vast  population,  and  all 
its  triumphs,  the  almost  instantaneous  property  of  its 
remotest  members ;  which  makes  countless  hearts  beat, 
and  pulses  throb  in  common  sympathy,  and  which  opens 
no  less  readily  to  the  accents  of  peace  than  to  those  of 
war  an  entrance  to  many  ears — as  the  sound  of  the 
ancient  tongue  of  his  country  is  said  to  command  an 
immediate  and  easy  admission  for  the  peace-bearing 
doctrines  of  the  gospel  to  the  heart  of  the  Irish  moun- 
taineer. 

Among  the  advertisements  contained  in  the  New  York 
papers  of  to-day,  I  was  struck  with  one  which  referred 
to  the  elections  to  be  held  in  that  city  on  the  first  Tues- 
day of  November,  and  which  specified,  among  other 
officers  to  be  elected  by  the  suffrage  of  ''all  male  citizens 
of  twenty-one  years  of  age," — 

A  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

A  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas. 

A  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court. 

This  practice  of  electing  Judges  by  popular  suffrage, 
and  for  a  limited  number  of  years,  appeared  to  me,  with 
my  home  opinions  and  historical  recollections,  one  of  the 
most  suspicious  of  the  novelties  which  have  lately  been 
introduced  into  the  New  England  States. 

This  practice  is  of  recent  origin  in  the  State  of  New 
York.  The  constitution  of  this  State,  as  amended  by  the 
State  Convention  of  1846,  enacted  that  all  Judges  should 
be  chosen  by  the  suffrages  of  the  electors  of  the  district, 
great  or  small,  over  which  their  functions  were  to  be 
exercised,  and  that  their  tenure  of  office  should  not 
exceed  eight  years.  Justices  of  the  Peace  are  chosen  by 
the  electors  of  the  several  town  (ships,)  at  their  annual 
town  meetings,  and  hold  office  for  four  years ;  and  they 
are  paid  a  per  diem  allowance  for  tlieir  services  in  ses- 
sions, and  fees  for  other  services.    The  Judges  of  the 


I  ^ 


III 


150      INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  JUDGES  IN  DANGER. 


Supreme  Court  are  chosen  by  the  electors  of  the  Judicial 
district  over  which  they  preside,  and  the  Judges  of  the 
Court  of  Appeals  by  the  electors  of  the  whole  State. 
These  Judges  have  fixed  salaries,  are  elected  for  eight 
years — going  out  by  rotation — and  may  be  removed  by  a 
concurrent  resolution  of  two-thirds  of  the  Assembly  and 
of  a  majority  of  the  Senate  of  the  State. 

There  are,  in  all,  thirty-six  Judges  of  the  Supreme 
Courts.  Four  sit  in  the  Court  of  Appeals,  and  four  in  each 
of  the  Supreme  Courts  located  in  the  eight  judicial  dis- 
tricts of  the  State.  The  professional  rank  of  all  is  equal, 
and  their  salaries  alike — 2500  dollars  a-year.  This 
salary  for  an  uncertain  period  only,  and  the  liability  to  be 
thrown  out  of  office  without  a  retiring  allowance,  at  the 
popular  w^U,  will  scarcely  enable  the  bench  of  the  State 
to  secure  the  highest  talent  of  the  bar,  in  a  litigation- 
loving  country  like  this. 

To  those,  also,  who  are  as  sensitive  in  regard  to  the 
purity  and  independence  of  the  Judges  of  their  country, 
as  to  the  perfection  of  its  political  institutions — especially 
to  persons  born  in  Europe,  or  who  are  familiar  with  the 
history  even  of  English  courts  of  justice — this  mode  of 
election  by  popular  suffrage  appears  by  no  means  void 
of  danger.  It  was  deservedly  considered  a  great  triumph 
when  the  appointment  of  Judges  for  life  liberated  the 
English  bench  from  the  influence  of  the  Crown,  and 
when  public  opinion  became  strong  enough  to  enforce 
the  selection  of  the  most  learned  in  the  law  for  the 
highest  judicial  offices.  Now,  passing  over  the  objection 
which  some  will  strongly  urge,  that  the  popular  electors 
are  not  the  best  judges  of  the  qualifications  of  those  who 
aspire  to  the  bench,  and  that  the  most  popular  legal 
demagogue  may  expect  to  obtain  from  them  the  highest 
official   appointment,*    It    may   be    reasonably   asked, 

*  In  the  estimation  of  the  Barnburner  section  of  the  democratic 
party,  this  objection  has  no  weight — one  of  their  principles  being  "  to 


POPPED  CORN. 


m 


whether  popular  influence  in  seasons  of  excitement,  and 
upon  questions  of  great  moment,  may  not  bias  the  minds 
of  Judges  whose  appointment  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
people — whether  the  fear  of  a  coming  election  may  not 
deter  them  from  unpopular  decisions.  The  influence  of 
a  popular  majority  may  here  as  profoundly  pollute  the 
fountains  of  justice  as  the  influence  of  the  Crown  ever 
did  among  us  at  home.  It  is  not  wise  to  expose  good 
men  to  such  temptations. 

The  practice  is  consistent  with  the  theory  that  all 
power  is  in  the  people,  and  that  all  patronage  ought  to 
be  exercised  by  them.  And  it  may  be  that  ignorance 
and  passion  may  not  more  frequently  interfere  with  the 
appointments  of  the  people,  than  favouritism  and  political 
influence  do  with  those  made  by  sovereigns  and  their 
ministers.  At  all  events,  it  is  said  that  hitherto  the 
system  has  worked  well,  and  that  good  selections  have 
been  made ;  though  I  have  heard  it  distinctly  acknow- 
ledged that  certain  Judges  had  been  excluded  at  recent 
elections  in  this  State  of  New  York,  because  of  their 
known  opinions  in  reference  to  important  public  ques- 
tions which  were  likely  to  come  before  the  courts. 

As  there  are  no  retiring  pensions,  the  want  of  success 
at  a  re-election  necessarily  sends  a  man  back  to  the  Bar. 
And  as  in  Scotland  "  ance  a  bailie,  aye  a  bailie"  is  the 
rule,  so  once  a  judge  or  general,  always  a  judge  or 
general,  in  the  United  States.  Hence  the  numerous 
titular  judges  to  be  met  with  among  the  lawyers, 
and  of  generals  and  colonels  among  all  classes  of  the 
people. 

Popped  corn  is  a  novelty  which  the  European  travelling 

fill  all  oflBces  with  men  taken  from  among  the  people,  and  not  to  con- 
fine them  to  those  who  live  by  office  and  make  politics  a  trade."  Those 
who  are  themselves  fit  to  be  taken  from  the  counter  or  the  plough  to 
fill  the  highest  political  offices,  cannot  be  unfit  merely  to  select  those 
who  are  to  fill  the  highest  judicial  offices. 


■ 

f 


{': 


'   r 


152 


VARIETIES  OF  INDIAN  CORN. 


n 


towards  the  west  will,  in  this  maize-growing  region,  pro- 
bably meet  with  for  the  first  time.  Boys  with  baskets 
attend  upon  the  cars  at  the  stopping-places,  selling  it  at 
so  much  a  quart.  Indian  corn,  beneath  a  thin  but  double 
epidermis,  consists  of  a  semi-transparent,  hard,  homy,  or 
flinty  part  of  a  yellow  colour ;  within  this,  of  a  white,  soft, 
opaque,  starchy  part ;  and  within  all,  at  the  base  of  the 
seed,  of  the  germ  or  chit,  as  it  is  called  in  America.  The 
horny  part  consists  of  starch,  of  oil,  which  under  the 
microscope  can  be  seen  in  globules,  and  of  a  proportion 
of  vegetable  albumen.*  The  soft  white  opaque  part  is 
chiefly  starch,  and  the  chit  almost  entirely  albumen. 
This  is  prettily  shown  by  cutting  off  with  a  knife  the 
outer  part  of  a  grain  of  Indian  corn,  and  applying  to  the 
pared  surface  a  drop  of  a  solution  of  iodine:  the  soft 
white  part  will  become  entirely  deep  blue )  the  horny 
part  blue  only  in  streaks  or  patches,  while  the  chit  will 
be  scarcely  affected.  The  substance  thus  turned  blue  is 
starch.  If  another  grain  of  corn  be  touched  in  the  same 
manner  with  a  solution  of  verdigris,  (acetate  of  copper,) 
or  of  blue  vitriol,  (sulphate  of  copper,)  only  the  chit  will 
be  coloured  blue — showing  that,  as  a  whole,  it  differs 
entirely  from  either  of  the  other  parts. 

But  the  cutting  of  the  seed  across,  and  especially  if 
the  cut  surface  be  coloured  by  the  application  of  any  of 
these  solutions,  shows  that  the  relative  size  and  position 
of  these  several  parts  varies  very  much  with  the  variety 
of  corn  we  examine.  In  some  the  homy  part  is  large,  as 
in  the  varieties  known  by  the  names  of  brown,  Canada, 
rice,  and  pop  corns ;  while  in  others,  as  in  the  flat 
southern  and  in  the  Tuscarora,  the  white  starchy  part 
predominates.  In  some,  as  in  the  pop  and  Canada  com, 
the  horny  part  entirely  surrounds  the  soft  starchy 
portion ;  in  others,  as  in  the  flat  southern,  it  forms  an 

*  Nearly  the  same  thing  as  the  white  of  egg. 


USE  OF  INDIAN  CORN  OIL. 


153 


irregular  layer  round  the  side  only  of  the  seed; 
while  in  others  again,  as  in  the  rice-corn,  the  seed 
consists  almost  entirely  of  a  large  horny  part  and  a 
large  chit. 

As  the  oil  exists  in  this  homy  part,  it  is  ohvious  that 
tliose  varieties  in  which  this  part  is  largo  ought  generally 
to  contain  most  oil ;  and  such  is  found  to  be  the  case.  It 
was  an  ignorance  of  these  differences  among  the  varieties 
of  Indian  com  which  a  few  years  ago  caused  the  violent 
dispute  between  Liebig  and  Dumas,  or  rather  the  hasty 
contradiction  by  Liebig  of  the  statement  of  Dumas,  as  to 
tlie  large  quantity  of  oil  contained  in  this  grain.  From 
2  to  9  per  cent  of  oil  can  be  extracted  from  it,  according 
to  the  variety  employed. 

In  the  distilleries  of  the  Western  States,  where  cora- 
brandy  is  made,  the  oil  is  extracted  and  sold  as  a  product 
of  the  manufacture.  A  hundred  bushels  of  the  large 
soutliern  or  western  com,  in  which  the  horny  part  is  not 
very  large,  yields  fifteen  or  sixteen  gallons  of  oil,  which 
is  at  the  rate  of  about  2^  per  cent  of  the  weight  of  the 
grain  as  it  comes  to  market.  Previous  to  distillation,  the 
Indian  corn  is  fermented  with  malt,  and,  during  the  fer- 
mentation, the  oil  rises  to  the  surface  and  is  skimmed  off. 
It  is  a  bright  pale  yellow  agreeable-smelling  oil,  and 
sells  for  about  a  dollar  a  gallon.  It  is  used  for  burning 
in  lamps  in  "western  New  York,  in  Ohio,  in  Michigan, 
and  upon  Lake  Superior. 

The  popping  of  corn  is  owing  to  the  presence  of  this 
oil,  but  only  those  varieties  will  pop  in  which  the  homy 
part  is  large,  and  surrounds  completely  the  internal 
starchy  part.  The  varieties  called  pop-corn  and  rice- 
corn  possess  this  property  in  the  highest  degree.  When 
they  are  heated  in  a  close  iron  vessel — like  a  coffee- 
roaster — to  about  600°  Fahr.,  the  oil  contained  in  the 
horny  part  expands — perhaps  in  part  decomposes — tears 
asunder  every  little  cell  in  which  it  is  contained,  bursts 


.IV 


I 


154       DIGESTIVE   POWERS  OF  THE   HORSE  AND  PIO. 

the  epidermis  of  the  top  or  side  of  the  seed  with  a  slight 
report,  like  that  of  a  popgun — and  forces  back,  in  fact 
turns  outside  in,  the  swollen  and  now  white  and  spongy 
mass  into  which  the  horny  part  is  changed.  In  this 
state  the  corn  is  soft  and  agreeable  to  eat,  more  easy  of 
digestion,  and  is  largely  consumed.  The  increase  of  bulk 
by  this  heating  process  is  so  great  that  one  barrel  of 
pop-corn  will  produce  sixteen,  and  of  rice-corn,  which  is 
a  small  seed,  thirty-two  barrels  of  poppec^  corn. 

It  will  occur  to  the  reader,  from  what  I  have  said  of 
the  internal  structure  of  Indian  corn,  that  the  flour 
which  is  obtained  from  the  several  varieties  will  be  more 
or  less  yellow,  according  as  the  proportion  of  the  coloured 
horny  part  is  greater  or  less.  Hence  the  white  Tusca- 
rora  corn,  which  contains  scarcely  any  horny  matter, 
gives  a  winter  flour  than  almost  any  other  variety. 
This  is  the  variety,  therefore,  which  is  principally  made 
use  of  for  the  manufacture  of  starch,  and  for  the  adul- 
teration of  wheaten  flour. 

As  the  direct  fattening  property  of  seeds  is  believed  to 
be  intimately  connected  with  the  quantity  of  oil  they 
contain,  I  may  mention  in  this  place  an  interesting 
physiological  fact,  communicated  to  me  by  Dr  Charles 
Jackson  of  Boston,  which  is  susceptible  of  an  important 
practical  application.  The  homy  part  of  the  com,  he 
informs  me,  is  not  digested  by  the  horse,  though  it  is 
readily  digested  by  the  pig  and  by  fowls.  The  econo- 
mical value  of  a  food,  therefore,  as  I  have  elsewhere 
explained,  cannot  be  judged  of  solely  from  its  chemical 
composition.* 

On  our  arrival  at  Rome,  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
station  was  crowded  with  people  who  were  waiting  to 
get  a  peep  of  Mr  Clay,  whom  we  had  picked  up  at  Utica 
on  his  way  to  Syracuse.    Our  train  had  now  swelled  to 

*  See  the  Author's  Lectures  on  Af/ricultural  Chemistry  and  Geology, 
2d  edition,  p.  1045. 


CHANGE  IN  THE  SURFACE, 


155 


a  line  of  fifteen  large  cars,  containing  each  from  forty 
to  fiixty  passengers,  so  that  we  proceeded  very  slowly, 
and  had  become  somewhat  impatient  of  delay.  A  few 
cheers  from  the  assembled  crowd,  rather  faint  compared 
with  those  which  afterwards  burst  forth  at  some  of  the 
succeeding  stations,  were  the  only  demonstrations  of 
affection  towards  Mr  Clay  which  I  observed  among  the 
western  llomans. 

On  leaving  Rome,  we  forsook  the  valley  of  the  Mohawk, 
and,  in  a  south-westerly  direction,  crossed  the  Clinton 
group  of  green,  sandy,  ferruginous  and  calcareous  shales, 
which,  from  their  softness,  have  been  much  washed  away, 
when  the  old  sea-currents  swept  over  them,  and  now 
form  a  flat,  uninteresting,  somewhat  swampy  country, 
stretching  in  a  narrow  zone  along  the  whole  of  western 
New  York,  as  far  as  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  and  thence 
into  Upper  Canada.  The  largest  and  deepest  depression 
in  this  belt  of  country  is  occupied  by  Lake  Oneida, 
which  we  passed  a  few  miles  to  our  right,  and  by  the 
marshes  of  the  town  (ship)  of  Cicero,  which  extend 
farther  towards  the  south. 

Nine  miles  from  Rome  we  passed  Verona,  another 
memento  of  Italy;  and  a  few  miles  farther,  Oneida 
station,  where  we  rapidly  crossed  a  narrow  belt  of  the 
Niagara  group,  the  first  of  the  upper  Silurian  system, 
and  entered  upon  the  Onondaga  salt  group,  the  most 
economically  and  agriculturally  valuable  of  all  the  rocks 
of  western  New  York.  The  natural  softness  of  these 
groups  of  rocks  in  this  locality,  and  the  level  character 
of  the  whole  country,  may  be  judged  of  from  the  fact 
that  the  Erie  canal  runs  through  it  for  sixty  miles 
without  a  single  lock. 

A  single  glance  at  this  country,  from  the  time  we  left 
Verona,  showed  into  how  different  a  region  we  had  come 
since  we  had  left  the  Mohawk  Valley.  A  flat  forest 
country  of  mixed  wood,  with  few  clearings,  resting  chiefly 


mmtmmm 


Ww 


I 


156 


GENESEE  COUNTRY. 


on  beds  of  gravel,  accompanied  us  for  some  miles  from 
the  river ;  but  before  we  reached  Oneida  we  were  upon 
soft  shales,  which  cnimbled  into  a  tenacious  soil.  Rich 
red  soils  and  red  marly  rocks  succeeded ;  the  country 
became  cleared,  was  cultivated  to  the  hill-tops,  and 
appeared  in  a  state  of  nature  only  where  the  flat  and 
swampy  surface  and  the  clayey  character  of  the  soils 
rendered  previous  drainage  necessary  to  successful  cul- 
tivation. 

From  Oneida  to  Syracuse  is  twenty-four  miles.  Dur- 
ing the  latter  half  of  it,  and  especially  in  the  town  (ship)  of 
Manlius,  we  p'  jed  through  much  low,  flat,  sandy  soil, 
still  under  for  .t.  In  some  of  the  hollows,  thick  layers 
of  peat  rested  on,  or  alternated  with,  the  white  drift 
sand ;  but  where  knolls  and  gravel  hills  occurred,  Indian 
com  grew  well ;  while  the  slopes  of  red  land  which  skirted 
the  valley  on  our  left  were  covered  with  Indian  com, 
or  with  rich  green  herbage,  to  their  very  summits.  We 
were  now  entering  upon  the  wheat  region,  the  old 
Genesee  country,  the  ancient  inheritance  of  ths  Six 
Nations.  We  reached  Syracuse  at  half-past  three, 
raving  come  from  Albany,  178  miles,  with  a  constantly 
increasing  train.  Great  crowds  thronged  the  station  and 
streets,  and  the  city  was  a  scene  of  much  bustle  and 
excitement.  ' 


CHAPTEE   VI. 

Tlie  city  of  Syracuse.—  Its  rapid  growth. — Popularity  of  Mr  Clay. — His 
reputed  chance,  and  that  of  Mr  Webster,  of  the  Presidentship. — Show 
of  the  New  York  State  Agricultural  Society. — Agricultural  implements. 
— What  they  teacih. — Forks,  com-shellers,  and  reaping-machines. — 
Extensive  use  of  the  latter  in  the  North- Western  States. — Argument 
against  thorough  drainage  in  western  New  York. —  Want  of  local 
attachment. — Law  against  long  leases  in  the  state  of  New  York. — 
Prevalence  of  the  Devon  breed  of  stock  in  New  England,  and  of  the 
Teeswater  in  the  Western  States. — Merino  sheep. — Fast-trotting 
horses. — Over-lightness  of  the  horses  for  heavy  farm-labour. — General 
impression  as  to  the  condition  of  New  York  agriculture. — Crowds 
who  visited  the  Show-yard. — Fruit  Show. — Emit  region  of  Western 
New  York. — Comparative  mildness  of  its  climate. — Rapid  extension 
of  apple-orchards. — Profits  of  apple-growing.>— Quantity  of  fruit 
exported. — Pomological  Convention. — Varieties  of  apples  in  the 
United  States  and  in  Normandy. — Mode  of  causing  apples  to  produce 
a  crop  every  year. — Influence  of  crops  of  rye  on  the  apple-tree. — 
Influence  of  geological  structure  on  the  flavour  of  the  apple,  and  of 
the  cider  made  from  it. —  Gout  de  terrain. — Mr  Geddes's  farm. — Rich 
soils  of  the  Onondaga  salt  group  of  rocks. — Soil  of  the  crumbling 
green  shale. — Rotation  followed  upon  it. — Gradual  exhausting  effects 
of  this  rotation. — Average  produce  of  the  whole  State  of  New  York 
and  of  the  richest  western  county. — Competition  of  the  Western 
States. — Profits  of  farming  in  New  York. — Property  confers  no  politi- 
cal privilege. — Indian-corn  hay. — Experiments  with  plaster  or  gypsum 
upon  Indian  corn  and  potatoes. — Gypsum  acts  best  on  calcareous 
soils  and  in  droughty  seasons. — Wages  of  farm-servauts. — Escar^v 
mont  of  the  Helderberg  limestone. — Onondaga  salt  group. — Rich  belt 
of  land  formed  by  it.^Section  of  the  wheat  region  of  western  New 
York. — Beautiful  relation  of  the  soils  to  the  nature  of  the  rocks  of 
which  this  undulating  plain  consists. — Soils  of  the  Medina  sandstone, 
of  the  Clinton,  Niagara,  Onondaga,  Helderberg,  Hamilton,  Genesee, 
and  Portage  groups.— Influence  of  overlying  drift.— Salt  springs.— 


OWM 


\ 


158 


CITY  OF  SYRACUSE. 


Connection  of  gypsum  and  common  salt. — Strength  of  the  Brine 
Springs  at  Syracuse. — Quantity  of  water  pumped  up  and  of  salt 
manufactured. — Alleged  consumption  of  salt  in  the  United  States. — 
Individual  consumption;  in  Great  Britain.— State  revenue  from  the 
Salt  Springs. — Methods  of  extracting  the  salt  at  Syracuse. — Probable 
presence  of  bromine  in  the  Syracuse  brines. 


\ 


Syracuse,  12th  Sept. — The  village  of  Syracuse,  erected 
into  a  city  in  1848,  occupies  an  important  local  position, 
and  is  a  remarkable  place  in  many  respects.   It  is  situated 
at  the  junction  of  the  Oswego  canal  (of  thirty-eight  miles 
in  length)  with  the  main  trunk  of  the  Erie  canal,  and  is 
thus  on  the  great  lines  of  communication  between  Canada 
and  western  New  York  on  the  one  hand,  and  between 
the  Atlantic  and  the  Western  lakes  and  States  on  the 
other.     It  is  also  close  to  the  site  of  the  salt  springs,  and 
is  the  seat  of  the  extensive  salt  manufacture  by  which 
western  New  York,  the  Canadas,  and  the  Western  States 
are  principally  supplied  with  this  necessary  article  of 
consumption.     It  stands  also  in  a  fertile  district,  and  in 
a  comparatively  genial  climate,  where  grapes  ripen  in 
the  open  air,  and  can  even  be  left  uncovered  all  the  year 
through.     Thirty  years  ago,  Syracuse  was  the  name  of 
a  few  houses  in  the  wilderness,  now  it  is  a  city  of  16,000 
inhabitants,  taxing  themselves  for  local  purposes  during 
the  present  year  (1849)  to  the  extent  of  35,000  dollars. 
It  has  the  large  hotels  common  to  towns  in  this  country, 
numerous  churches,  the  spires  of  several  of  which  are 
now  in  process  of  erection,  and  many  skeleton  streets, 
which,  if  its  prosper  t}'  continue,  will  soon  be  built  up. 
The  last  ten  years  have  added  greatly  to  its  size  ;  and, 
so  late  as  six  years  ago,  tht  wilderness  still  surrounded 
the  residence  of  the  mayor — :o  whose  hospitality  I  was 
indebted  during  my  stay  at  Syrc  cuse — where  his  garden 
now  extends,  and  plum  and  peach  trees  and  vines  are  in 
full  and  luxuriant  bearing. 

All  was  excitement  in  the  town,  in  consequence  of  the 


POPULARITY  OF  MR  CLAY. 


169 


arrival  of  Mr  Clay;  and  complaints  were  not  unjustly 
made  by  those  engaged  in  preparing  for  the  Agricultural 
Show  that  his  presence,  as  a  politician,  seriously  inter- 
fered with  tlie  objects  for  which  so  many  thousands  bad 
assembled  at  Syracuse.     To  me,  as  a  stranger,  it  was 
interesting    to    observe    how  very    popular   Mr    Clay 
appeared  to  be,  and  how,  in  their  liking  for  the  individual, 
so  many  seemed  willing  to  forget  the  shade  of  politics  he 
represented.     One  of  his  political  opponents  observed  to 
me,  that,  since  the  days  of  Washington,  probably  no  man 
had  so  generally  carried  with  him  the  hearts  of  the  whole 
people  of  the  United  States.     He  is  also  a  man  of  great 
ability,  and  has  played  a  large  part  in  the  public  affairs 
of  his  day  ;  and  it  therefore  appears  remarkable  to  those 
who  are  unaware  of  the  small  matters  by  which  great 
questions  are  decided,  that  he  has  never  attained  the 
dignity  of  President  of  the  United  States.     He  is  now 
advancing  in  years,  but  is  still  fresh  in  intellect  and  full 
of  en«!rgy,  as  is  shown  by  his  recent  action  upon  the 
slavery  question ;  and  his  friends  aie  not  without  hope 
of  seeing  him  still  attain  to  that  distinguished  office 
before  his  intellectual  strength  is  gone. 

Of  the  able  and  ambitious  men  who  now  aspire  to  the 
office  of  President,  there  are  many  who  think  Mr  Clay's 
chance  all  the  better  that  the  State  of  Kentucky  has  not 
hitherto  had*  the  honour  of  giving  a  President  to  the 
United  States.  It  is  a  striking  c'rcumstance,  that,  of  the 
twelve  Presidents  whom  the  Union  has  had,  no  less  than 
five  have  been  Virginia  men ;  whi;e  Massachusetts  and 
Tennessee  have  each  sent  wo,  and  New  York,  Ohio, 
and  Louisiana  each  one,  to  the  Presidential  chair.  The 
principle  of  an  equal  division  of  office,  or  turn  and  turn 
about,  is  a  very  popular  one  in  some  of  the  States ;  and 
it  has  been  gravely  urged  to  me,  by  a  person  of  much 
intelligence,  in  reference  to  Mr  Daniel  Webster,  that  the 
circumstance  of  his  being  from  Massachusetts — a  State 


160 


TALENT  AND  THE   PRESIDENCY. 


which  has  already  given  two  Presidents  to  the  Union — '■ 
is  certain  for  ever  to  exclude  hira  from  that  high  position. 
But  it  is  one  of  the  benefits  and  boasts  of  a  large  federal 
republic,  that  a  wider  field  exists  from  which  to  select 
great  men  to  manage  great  affairs,  and  that  it  opens  a 
wider  field  of  ambition  to  the  noble  minds  which  may 
spring  up  in  every  part  of  the  Union.  Even  in  republics, 
however,  the  most  excellent  theory  cannot  be  made  to 
coexist  with  perfectibility  in  practice;  and  the  alleged 
wider  field  for  great  talents  becomes  null,  if  the  great 
offices  are  to  be  equally  divided  among  the  several  States 
as  their  turn  comes  round. 

VSth  Sept. — This  morning  I  visited  the  show-yard, 
along  with  my  friend  Professor  Norton  of  Yale  College, 
who  had  thus  far  accompanied  me  in  my  tour  through 
his  native  country.  Tlie  show  was  held  in  a  large 
inclosed  area,  quite  as  spacious  as  those  usually  devoted 
to  this  purpose  by  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society  of 
England.  The  two  main  divisions  of  implements  and 
stock  occupied  the  chief  place,  as  with  us ;  farm  and 
dairy  produce,  however,  and  fruits,  receive  much  atten- 
tion from  the  New  York  State  Society,  and  had  an 
appropriate  place  assigned  to  them  under  the  tents  and 
sheds  which  were  scattered  over  the  grounds. 

The  general  character  of  the  implements  was  economy 
in  construction  and  in  price,  and  the  exhibition  was  large 
and  interesting.  I  know  of  no  more  instructive  lesson. 
in  regard  to  the  practical  condition  of  the  husbandry  «t* 
a  country,  than  that  which  a  man  gets  in  surveying  a 
collection  of  implements — actually  in  use,  or  coming 
into  use — such  as  these  exhibitions  supply.  Our  English 
chaff-cutters  and  food-crushcrri,  and  drill  and  thrashing 
and  tile  machines,  and  cultivators  and  subsoil-ploughs 
and  clod-crushers,  tell  more  of  what  is  going  on  in  the 
country  than  months  of  travelling  would  make  known  to 
the  most  active  agricultural  inquirer.     It  is  not  so  much 


large 


OLlgllS 

in  the 

iwn  to 

much 


USE  OF  REAPING-MACHINES. 


m 


the  construction  and  cost  and  usefulness  of  a  machine, 
as  the  number  and  variety  of  each  seen  on  the  ground, 
which  shows  what  implements  are  in  most  request,  and  in 
what  direction  the  practice  of  the  farmer  is  progressing. 

Ploughs,  hay-rakes,  forks,  scythes,  and  cooking-stoves, 
were  very  abundant,  and  many  of  them  well  and  beauti- 
fully made.  American  ploughs  are  now  exported  in 
considerable  numbers.  At  a  subsequient  period,  a  dealer 
in  Boston  informed  me  he  had  this  season  sold  a  hundred 
of  one  of  the  varieties  made  in  Massachusetts  to  a  single 
individual  for  sale  in  London.  The  potato  grips  and 
forks,  of  various  kinds,  cut  out  of  sheet-steel,  were  very 
elastic,  light,  strong,  and  cheap.  They  seemed  to  leave 
nothing  in  these  articles  to  be  desired.  The  cradle-scythes 
were  also  excellent :  an  active  man  was  said  to  be  able 
to  cut  four  to  six  acres  of  wheat  a-day  with  them.  That, 
of  course,  would  depend  something  upon  the  quantity  of 
straw  upon  the  ground. 

Among  the  more  novel  instruments  to  me  were  the 
corn-shellers  and  crushers.  The  former  were  very  pretty 
implements,  and  the  larger  kinds  were  said  to  be  capable 
of  shelling  two  hundred  bushels  of  Indian  corn  an  hour. 

Of  reaping-machines  there  were  several  varieties  on 
the  ground,  and  several  are  actually  in  use  in  the  West- 
ern States.  .  Hussey's,  Avhicli  I  saw  on  the  ground,  was 
said  to  cut  twenty-five  acres  of  whci  t  a-da}  ,  My  friend, 
3Ir  Stevens,  who  went  round  the  yard  with  me,  assured 
me  he  had  seen  on3  of  them  cut  sixteen  acres.  M'Cor- 
mick's  machine,  I  suppose,  must  be  a  good  one,  from  tlie 
information  here  given  me  that  as  many  as  fifteen  hun- 
dred of  them  have  been  made  at  Chicago,  in  Illinois,  this 
last  year,  and  sold  for  catting  wheat  on  the  prairies  of 
the  North-Weatern  States.  Of  course,  it  is  only  on  flat 
lands  that  they  can  be  advantageously  employed.  But 
where  labour  is  scarce,  and  un wooded  prairie  plenty,  the 

VOL.  I.  L 


n 


'  t'ii 


162 


OBJECTION  TO  THOROUGH -DRAINAGJi:. 


i 


owner  of  a  reaping  and  a  threshing  machine  may  culti- 
va**^  18  much  land  as  he  can  scratch  with  the  plough  and 
sprinkle  with  seed. 

A  great  breadth  of  this  western  New  York  is  wet, 
flat,  and  marshy ;  but  drainage  is  yet  unknown.  A 
single  sample  of  pipe-tiles  was  exhibited — as  a  curiosity, 
I  suppose.  But  the  Society  is  now  alive  to  the  impor- 
tance of  drainage,  not  only  for  the  purpose  of  drying  flat 
and  obviously  wet  and  marshy  land,  but  of  rendering 
more  productive  such  heavy  soils  as  with  us  are  so 
generally  improved  by  thorough-drainage  ;  and  already 
several  tile-machines  have  been  imported  from  England 
under  their  auspices,  and  premiums  offered  for  experi- 
ments in  thorough-draining. 

An  objection  to  drainage  is  made  in  this  country  which, 
though  sometimes  urged  with  us,  is  by  no  means  of  such 
force  in  England  as  it  is  in  America.  The  cost  of  this 
improvement,  even  at  the  cheapest  rate — say  four  pounds 
or  twenty  dollars  an  acre — is  equal  to  a  large  proportion 
of  the  present  price  of  the  best  land  in  this  rich  district 
of  western  New  York.  From  fifty  to  sixty  dollars  an 
acre  is  the  highest  price  which  farms  bring  here ;  and  if 
twenty-five  dollars  an  acre  were  expended  upon  any  of 
it,  the  price  in  the  market  would  not  rise  in  proportion. 
Or  if  forty-dollar  land  should  actually  be  Improved  one- 
fourth  by  thorough-drainage,  it  would  still,  it  is  said,  not 
be  more  valuable  than  that  which  now  sells  at  fifty  dol- 
lars ;  so  that  the  Improver  would  be  a  loser  to  the  extent 
of  fifteen  dollars  an  acre. 

This  argument  will  appear  to  have  greater  force  when 
it  is  understood  that  there  Is  as  yet  in  New  England  and 
New  York  scarcely  any  such  thing  as  local  attachment 
— the  love  of  a  place,  because  It  is  a  man's  own — because 
he  has  hewed  It  out  6f  the  wilderness,  and  made  it  what 
it  is  ;  or  because  his  father  did  so,  and  he  and  his  family 
have  been  bom  and  brought  up,  and  spent  their  happy 


ll 


WANT  OP  LOCAL  ATTACHMENT. 


1C3 


rhen 
and 
ment 
;ause 
what 
imily 
appv 


youthful  days  upon  it.  Speaking  generally,  every  farm 
from  Eastport  in  Maine,  to  Buffalo  on  Lake  Erie,  is  for 
sale.  The  owner  has  already  fixed  a  price  in  his  mind 
for  which  he  would  oe  willing,  and  even  hopes  to  sell, 
believing  that,  with  the  same  money,  he  could  do  better 
for  himself  and  his  family  by  going  still  farther  west. 
Thus,  to  lay  out  money  in  improvements  is  actually  to 
bury  what  he  does  not  hope  to  be  able  to  get  out  of  his 
land  again,  when  the  opportunity  for  selling  presents  itself. 
With  us  the  mode  of  looking  at  improvement  questions 
is  different.  A  proprietor  says,  this  is  my  own  residence; 
I  will  make  it  as  comfortable  as  I  can — as  valuable  as  I 
-improve  it  as  much  as  my  means  will  allow — make 


can- 


it  equal,  if  possible,  to  the  best  land  of  my  neighbours. 
If  I  should  spend  a  good  deal  of  money  upon  it,  I  am 
depositing  it  in  a  sure  bank,  if  I  go  prudently  and  skil- 
fully to  work  ;  and  my  children,  at  all  events,  will  reap 
the  benefit. 

Or,  if  he  is  a  tenant  holding  the  land  on  a  lease  for  so 
many  years  certain,  he  balances  the  cost  of  drainage 
against  the  increase  of  produce,  and  the  diminution  of 
expense  in  working  his  land,  taken  together,  during  the 
term  for  which  the  holding  is  secured  to  him ;  and  he 
drains,  or  the  contrary,  as  this  balance  proves  encou- 
raging or  otherwise.  The  owner  in  New  York,  who  also 
farms  his  land,  should  consider  the  question  of  improve- 
ment as  the  English  or  Scottish  leaseholder  does,  were 
it  not  that  he  is  in  reality  a  less  fixed  being  than  the 
tenant-farmers  are  in  our  island.  I  do  not  know  whether 
we  ought  to  consider  that  the  moral  force  which  origin- 
ally projected  them  or  their  fathers  from  Europe  is  still 
partially  unexpended,  and  thus  tends,  at  any  unwary 
moment,  to  bear  them  still  farther  oflf";  or  whether,  as 
some  think,  the  climate  of  North  America  creates  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  a  nervous  restlessness  which  conti- 
nually incites  to  change  ; — but  certainly  "  forwards,"  in  a 


I^ 


164 


LAW   REGARDING  LEASES. 


I-    ''•■ 


physical  at  least  as  much  as  in  a  moral  sense,  Is  the  cha- 
racteristic of  our  respected  Yankee  cousins. 

I  am  reminded,  by  my  allusioil  to  the  leasehold  tenure, 
of  a  singular  provision  in  the  New  York  State  Constitu- 
tion in  reference  to  leases.  The  14th  section  of  the  1st 
article  says : — "  No  lease  or  grant  of  agricultural  land, 
for  a  longer  period  than  twelve  years,  hereafter  made, 
in  wliich  shall  be  reserved  any  rent  or  service  of  any 
kind,  shall  be  valid."  This  section  owes  its  origin  to 
the  existence  in  this  State  of  certain  old  leases,  by  which 
a  small  quit-rent  was  reserved,  and  which  leases  the  pre- 
sent leaseholders  have  been  anxious  to  convert  into  free- 
holds, not  by  buying  out  the  manorial  rights,  but  by 
refusing  any  longer  to  pay  the  quit-rent — as  if  it  were 
really  a  hardship  to  fulfil  honestly  the  terms  on  which 
their  lands  are  held.  The  clamour  and  excitement  to 
which  this  struggle  gave  rise  was,  no  doubt,  the  main 
cause  of  the  insertion  of  this  restriction  into  the  Consti- 
tution as  to  the  length  of  future  leases.  The  time  may 
come  when,  if  not  altered,  this  law  will  operate  as  a  bar 
to  agricultural  improvement.  In  Scotland,  a  shorter 
lease  than  nineteen  years  is  not  considered  to  give  suffi- 
cient security  or  inducement  to  the  tenant  to  make  those 
expensive  improvements  wliich  his  landlord  does  not  find 
it  expedient  to  make  with  his  own  capital.  The  time  is 
no  doubt  approaching,  in  this  commercial  State,  when 
the  letting  of  farms,  on  money  or  grain  rents,  will  be 
both  more  general  and  more  popular  than  it  is  at  present ; 
and  then,  to  secure  good  farmers,  capable  of  expending 
the  necessary  capital,  a  change  in  this  article  of  the 
Constitution  may  facilitate  that  advancement  in  agri- 
culture which,  as  far  as  circumstances  admit,  so  many 
parties  are  already  eagerly  striving  to  make. 

In  the  New  England  States  and  in  New  York  the 
Devon  blood  prevails.  Most  of  the  stock  are  grades^  as 
they  are  called,  or  crosses  of  the  pure  Devon  bull  with 


for 


CATTLE  AND  HORSES. 


IGo 


the  older  stock  of  the  country,  which  is  originally  of 
mixed  English  and  Dutch  of  various  kinds.  The  cows 
exhibited  were  nearly  all  Devons,  and  there  was  a 
beautiful  Devon  bull  in  the  yard  which  had  been  bred  in 
Canada.  In  the  Western  and  South- Western  States 
the  short-horn  blood  predominates,  and  of  this  blood 
there  were  some  good  specimens  exhibited. 

Tiie  Merino  sheep  are  great  favourites,  and  in  the 
Rembouillet  stock  the  carcass  has  been  much  improved. 
If  they  have  dry  lying,  they  stand  the  winter  well  in 
open  sheds. 

Of  horses  there  was  a  large  show.  Of  that  fast-trot- 
ting horse  which  is  so  much  fancied  in  this  country  there 
were  many  exhibited.  It  is  in  the  exigencies  of  a  new 
country,  where  few  horses  could  be  kept  by  the  small 
farmers,  and  the  necessity  for  having  them  of  a  kind 
which  could  both  work  in  the  field  and  go  fast  to  market, 
that  we  find  the  origin  of  that  general  lightness  of  body 
which  distinguishes  the  Canadian  and  other  North  Ame- 
rican horses.  They  are,  in  reality,  too  light  for  heavy 
farm-work ;  and  when  the  period  arrives  for  deep- 
ploughing,  and  more  extensive  cultivation  of  heavy  land, 
a  heavier  and  stronger  stock  of  horses,  still  preserving  a 
quick  step,  will  gradually  take  the  place  both  of  the 
oxen,  which,  in  many  of  the  States,  are  now  extensively 
employed,'  and  of  the  limber-horses,  with  which  they  are 
sometimes  yoked  in  the  same  team. 

On  the  whole,  the  opinion  I  formed  of  the  actual  con- 
dition of  New  York  agriculture,  from  the  show  of  imple- 
ments and  stock  on  this  occasion,  was  a  very  favourable 
one.  That  the  practical  agriculture  of  the  State  is  far 
behind  that  of  the  best  parts  of  England  and  Scotland 
no  one  can  deny  ;  but  that  there  are  good  farmers  in  the 
State,  that  progress  is  making  generally,  that  a  desire 
for  progress  is  very  widely  diifusing  itself,  and  that  there 
are  men  of  skill  and  energy  at  work  in  exciting  and 


m 


166 


riiUIT  OP  WESTERN   NEW   YOKK. 


I   I 


directing  that  progress,  the  occurrences  of  this  meeting 
sufficiently  testified. 

Tlie  premiums  oiFered  by  the  Society  on  this  occasion 
amounted  to  the  sum  of  £1600,  and  the  number  of  per- 
souH  who  visited  the  shovv-yai  1  was  immense.  Thirty 
thousand  entrance  tickets  (sixpence  eacli)  were  sold  on 
the  first  day  of  the  show,  besides  three  thousand  mem- 
bers' tickets,  (one  dollar  each,)  which  admitted  the  mem- 
ber and  his  family. 

At  three  p.  m.  I  delivered  my  address,  in  a  large  open 
tent,  to  an  audience  of  several  thousand  people,  by  whom 
it  was  warmly  and  kindly  received. 

The  fruit-show  was  not  so  fine  as  was  anticipated, 
owing  to  the  season  having  proved  an  unfavourable  one 
for  fruit  in  the  Northern  States  generally.  By  the  resi- 
dents of  western  New  York  this  is  regarded  as  the  finest 
fruit-country  in  the  world.  The  mollifying  influence  of 
Lake  Ontario — which  has  an  area  of  6300  square  miles, 
an  average  depth  of  500  feet,  and  never  freezes  as  Lake 
Erie  does — extends,  more  or  less,  over  the  whole  level 
or  slightly  undulating  region  occupied  by  the  lower  por- 
tion of  the  upper  Silurian  rocks,  on  which  the  rich  soils 
of  this  part  of  the  State  rest,  and  from  which  they  are 
generally  formed.  From  Oswego,  near  the  east  end  of 
Lake  Ontario,  to  Niagara,  on  the  Canadian  borders,  this 
region  forms  a  belt  about  40  miles  wide  by  150  miles 
long,  and  over  it  the  early  frosts  of  autumn,  which  are 
so  injurious  to  fruit-trees,  are  comparatively  unfelt.  It 
is  on  the  eastern  part  of  the  Lake  Ontario  shore,  towards 
Oswego,  however,  that  the  grape  and  peach  ripen  the 
most  surely,  and  produce  the  finest  fruit. 

The  old  apple-country  of  the  United  States — the  home 
of  the  Newtown  pippin,  the  Spitzemberg,  and  other 
highly  prized  varieties  —  is  on  the  Atlantic  border, 
between  Massachusetts  Bay  and  the  Delaware.  But 
western  New  York  and  northern  Ohio  l>.ave  now  entered 


a 


into  can 
Their  rl 
but  infc 
gulshes 
is  not  CO 
orchard- 
the  aver 
lars  an  { 

InOi 
Oneida, 
1848, 
cents  pc 
But  in  1 
and  in 
County, 
chants  o 
sent  off^ 
dried  ap 
bushels 

These 
one  of  ( 
sons  no^ 
what  is 
its  meel 
agrlculti 
ture  of  1 
mon  anc 
peach,  a 
ation,  ai 
Society 
branch  ( 
Near 
already 
describe 


IMPORTANCE  OF  THIS  CULTURE. 


167 


into  earnest  competition  with  these  old  orchard  countries. 
Their  rich  soils  produce  larger  and  more  beautiful  fruit, 
but  inferior,  it  is  said,  in  that  high  flavour  which  distin- 
guishes the  Atlantic  apples.  This  inferiority,  however, 
is  not  conceded  by  the  western  cultivators,  among  whom 
orchard-planting  is  rapidly  extending,  and  who  estimate 
the  average  profit  of  fruit  cultivation  at  100  to  150  dol- 
lars an  acre,  (£20  to  £30.) 

In  Oneida  County,  at  the  eastern  extremity  of  Lake 
Oneida,  part  of  four  townships  shipped  on  the  canal,  in 
1848,  as  many  as  18,000  barrels,  at  from  62^  to  100 
cents  per  barrel.  This  is  a  low  price  for  good  apples. 
But  in  New  York  the  best  apples  sell  for  three  or  four, 
and  in  London  for  nine  dollars  a  barrel.  In  Wayne 
County,  about  the  middle  of  this  belt  of  land,  the  mer- 
chants of  Palmyra,  a  shipping  village  on  the  Erie  Canal, 
sent  off  50,000  barrels  of  green  or  fresh,  and  10,000  of 
dried  apples  in  the  same  year,  and  along  with  them  1000 
bushels  of  dried  peaches. 

These  facts  show  that  the  fruit-culture  is  becoming 
one  of  considerable  importance,  and  the  number  of  per- 
sons now  interested  in  it  has  caused  the  formation  of 
what  is  called  the  Pomological  Convention,  which  held 
its  meeting  at  Syracuse  on  the  occasion  of  the  State 
agricultural  fair.  Everything  connected  with  the  cul- 
ture of  the.  apple,  and,  I  believe,  of  the  other  more  com- 
mon and  more  im.portant  fruits,  such  as  the  pear,  the 
peach,  and  the  grape,  form  subjects  of  inquiry,  consider- 
ation, and  discussion ;  and  from  the  proceedings  of  this 
Society  good  can  scarcely  fail  to  arise  to  this  growing 
branch  of  practical  agriculture. 

Nearly  200  recognised  varieties  of  apples  are 
already  cultivated  in  the  States,  of  which  186  are 
described  by  Mr  Downing.*      One   important  object 

•  Fruits  and  Fruit-trees  of  America.    New  York,  1849, 


IMAGE  EVALUATION 
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WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

(716)872-4503 


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168 


CIDER- HUSBANDRY  OP  NORMANDY. 


which  the  American  Pomological  Convention  may  use- 
fully keep  in  view  is  the  purification  of  the  nomenclature 
of  fruits.  In  Normandy,  where  the  apple-culture  for 
the  manufacture  of  cider  is  an  important  source  of 
revenue  upon  every  farm,  there  are  upwards  of  5000 
differently  named  varieties  of  the  acid  or  bitter  apple, 
which  yield  the  cider.  These  have  all  been  collected 
and  examined  by  Professor  Girardin  of  Rouen,  grafted 
on  stocks,  grown,  figured,  and  analysed,  and  he  informed 
me  that  the  same  apple  was  sometimes  known  by  as 
many  as  eighteen  different  names  in  different  parts  of 
that  country.  I  was  struck,  during  a  tour  in  Normandy 
two  years  ago,  with  the  little  skill  and  the  antique  and 
rude  tools  which  appear  to  be  there  devoted  to  a  branch 
of  industry  which  is  of  much  economical  value  to  the 
farmers  of  the  province.  There  are  no  hedgerows  upon 
the  farms,  but  the  divisions  of  the  fields  are  marked  out 
by  rows  of  apple-trees;  and  the  crop  of  fruit,  which 
there,  as  in  so  many  other  countries,  is  good  only  every 
second  year,  is  expected  to  pay  the  whole  rent  of  the 
land.  In  behalf  of  an  industry  of  so  much  consequence 
to  the  rural  population  of  a  large  province  in  France,  to 
whole  counties  in  England,  and  to  large  portions  of  other 
countries  of  Europe,  and  which  is  likely  to  be  extensively 
prosecuted  in  America,  it  is  time  to  ask  whether  the 
sciences  of  botany,  meteorology,  chemistry,  and  physi- 
ology cannot  now  be  made  to  render  them  more  direct 
economical  aid  than  they  have  hitherto  done. 

In  the  United  States  only  the  finest  apples  are  sent  to 
market — the  waste  or  refuse  are  generally  made  into 
cider.  But  those  varieties  which  are  best  for  the  table 
are  unfit  alone  to  make  a  palatable  cider.  The  culture, 
growth,  and  selection  of  cider  apples,  the  proper  ad- 
mixture of  varieties  in  the  crushing-mill,  &c.,  is  a  branch 
of  special  husbandry  requiring  special  knowledge,  the 
acquisition  and    diffusion    of   which    may  be  greatly 


prom<] 
grow« 
In 
natur^ 
But 
Amei 
Hudsc 
much 
makini 
whethJ 


MR  PELL'S  EXPERIMENTS. 


169 


irect 


promoted  by   a  judiciously   conducted    association    of 
growers. 

In  tiie  United  States  also,  as  elsewhere,  the  trees 
naturally  yield  a  heavy  crop  only  every  second  year. 
But  Mr  Pell,  the  owner  of  one  of  the  finest  orchards  in 
America — that  of  Pelham  farm,  at  Esopus,  on  the  river 
Hudson — to  whom  I  was  subsequently  indebted  for 
much  kind  attention  at  New  York,  has  recently  been 
making  experiments  with  the  view  of  ascertaining 
whether,  by  proper  manuring  applications  to  the  roots, 
an  annual  crop  might  not  be  secured  from  his  valuable 
Newtown  pippin  trees,  of  which  he  has  two  thousand  in 
full  bearing.  His  experiments,  he  informed  me,  had 
been  perfectly  successful,  only  he  had  begun  to  think,  or 
apprehend,  that  the  life  of  his  trees  might  be  shortened 
by  this  course,  and  that  he  might  have  to  replace  them 
so  many  years  sooner.  But  should  this  prove  the  result, 
it  might  still  be  profitable,  as  it  is  with  the  peach 
orchards  of  New  Jersey,  to  have  a  succession  of  new 
trees  coming  up  to  replace  the  old — and  experiments  on 
the  subject  are  deserving  of  encouragement. 

An  interesting  observation  made  by  Mr  Pell  in  regard 
to  the  influence  of  crops  of  rye  upon  an  apple-orchard  is 
deserving  of  a  place  among  important  physiological  facts 
as  yet  incapable  of  explanation.  He  cultivates  his 
orchard  grounds  as  if  there  were  no  trees  upon  them,  and 
raises  grain  of  every  kind  except  rye — which  crop  he 
finds  so  injurious  that'he  believes  three  successive  crops 
of  it  would  destroy  any  orchard  which  is  less  than 
twenty  years  old.  We  in  Europe,  who  think  it  bad 
and  exhausting  husbandry  to  take  three  successive  com 
crops  of  any  kind  from  the  same  land  without  the 
addition  of  manure,  might  be  inclined  to  attribute  the 
ruin  of  an  orchard,  under  these  circumstances,  to  bad 
husbandry  only,  were  it  not  that  similar  successive  crops 
of  other  kinds  of  grain  do  not  produce  s^  like  effect. 


170 


GOUT-DE-TERRAIN. 


How  interesting  it  would  be  to  follow  out  the  practical 
physiological  experiments  which  this  observation  of  Mr 
Pell  suggests ! 

It  is  a  curious  illustration  of  the  connection  of  geology- 
even  with  this  branch  of  rural  industry,  that  the  nature 
of  the  rock  over  which  the  apples  grow  affects  the 
flavour  of  the  cider  which  is  made  from  the  fruit.  The 
cider  of  the  chalk  soils  in  Normandy  differs  in  flavour 
from  that  of  sandy,  and  both  from  that  of  clay  soils — the 
variety  of  fruit  and  the  management  being  the  same. 
Hence  the  gout-de-terrain  spoken  of  by  French  con- 
noisseurs is  a  correct  expression  for  this  recognisable 
difference.  Among  the  varied  geological  deposits  of 
western  New  York,  similar  differences  must  likewise  be 
observed  both  in  the  fruit  and  in  the  cider  made  from 
it,  which  vill  give  peculiar  characters  and  recommenda- 
tions to  the  productions  of  the  several  districts. 

lAth  Sept. — This  morning  early,  the  Honourable  Mr 
Geddes,  one  of  the  State  senators  for  Onondaga  County, 
drove  me  out  to  breakfast  at  his  farm  of  Fairmount,  a 
few  miles  from  Syracuse.  He  is  the  owner  of  300  acres 
of  the  best  land  on  the  rocks  of  the  Onondaga  salt- 
group,  and,  like  nearly  all  the  owners  in  this  country, 
lives  upon  and  farms  it  himself.  The  soil  is  a  light- 
coloured  calcareous  clay,  which  crumbles  readily,  and 
never  bakes.  It  is  generally  shallow,  and  rests  on  a 
green  shaly  rock,  which  readily  crumbles  in  the  air, 
and  by  exposure  becomes  paler  in  colour,  forming  the 
light-coloured  soil  of  which  the  farm  consists. 

This  district  is  more  like  a  part  of  Old  England  than  of 
a  newly  cleared  country.  Of  Mr  Geddes's  300  acres  270 
are  in  arable  culture,  and  comfortable  houses  and  other 
buildings  are  seen  upon  most  of  the  farms.  The  land  is 
generally  divided  into  farms  of  one  or  three  hundred 
acres ;  and  these,  with  the  buildings  upon  them,  usually 
sell  at  from  fifty  to  sixty  dollars  an  acre.    At  this  price 


as  ever 


AVERAGE  PRODUCE  IN  THIS  COUNTY. 


171 


') 


Mr  Geddes  considers  it  the  cheapest  land  in  the  States — 
for  those  of  course  who  have  the  money  to  buy  it.  By 
men  whose  capital  is  in  their  bodily  strength  and  indus- 
trious habits,  the  wilderness  land  of  more  western 
districts  is  alone  attainable. 

The  land  is  of  a  very  useful  kind,  producing  all  sorts 
of  grain  crops  well,  though  not  of  equal  quality.  Thus 
the  produce  per  acre  was  stated  by  Mr  Geddes  to  be,  of — 


Wheat,     . 

18  to   35  bushels  of  60  pounds. 

Barley,     . 

20  ^    65      ...      of  48      ... 

Oats, 

40  ~  100      ...      of  32      ... 

Indian  corn. 

60 --    80      ...      of  56  to  60  pounds 

Potatoes,  . 

100  ^  300  bushels. 

It  is  least  adapted,  he  said,  to  the  growth  of  potatoes  ; 
and  turnips  are  as  yet  but  little  grown,  as  the  raising  of 
fat  stock  is  not  much  attended  to.  An  average  weight 
of  32  lb.  does  not  indicate  a  soil  or  climate  well  suited 
to  the  oat  crop. 

This  land  has  been  in  many  places  ploughed  for  fifty 
years  without  receiving  any  manure.  I  walled  over 
two  large  fields  which  have  never  been  manured  for  the 
fifty  years  which  have  elapsed  since  the  present  owner's 
father  cleared  them ;  and  he  thinks  the  land  still  as  good 
as  ever  it  was.  He  reaps  from  it  50  to  60  bushels  of 
corn ;  and,  last  year,  ( 1848,)  30  bushels  an  acre  of 
wheat.  The'  soil  consists,  for  the  most  part,  of  crumbling 
fragments  of  the  green  shale.  When  the  older  land 
appears  to  become  exhausted,  the  plough  is  put  in  a 
little  deeper,  so  as  to  bring  up  a  little  of  the  crumbling 
rock,  (green  shale,)  when  it  is  said  to  produce  wheat  as 
before. 

The  rotation  is  Indian  corn  after  lea,  with  manure — 
if  any  is  applied — then  oats,  followed  by  barley  or  pease, 
and  finally,  winter  wheat,  with  seeds  in  spring.  It  is 
kept  in  grass  two  years ;  in  one  of  which  two  crops  of 
hay  are  cut,  and  in  the  other  it  is  pastured,  as  250  sheep 


172 


AVERAGE  OF  THE  STATE  OF  NEW  YORK. 


and  16  milk-cows  are  kept.  If  the  land  be  foul,  It  is 
now  summer  fallowed,  and  sown  with  wheat,  followed 
by  seeds  as  before,  after  which  Indian  corn  comes  again. 
If  it  is  not  foul,  the  rotation  commences  with  Indian 
c6rn  after  the  first  two  years'"  grass. 

On  land  like  this  extraordinary  green  shale  land,  such 
severe — what  we  should  call  scourging — treatment  may 
be  continued  a  great  many  years  with  apparent 
impunity ;  although  it  tells  very  soon  on  land  of  inferior 
quality.  But  even  on  such  land  it  tells  at  last.  Hence 
it  is  that  this  celebrated  wheat-region,  as  a  whole^  is 
gradually  approaching  the  exhausted  condition  to  which 
the  more  easterly  wheat-growing,  naturally  poorer 
districts,  had  earlier  arrived.  They  are  ceasing,  in 
many  places,  to  be  remunerative  in  the  culture  of  this 
crop  with  the  present  system  of  farming,  are  becoming 
unable  to  compete  with  the  cheap  wheat-growing  virgin 
soils  of  the  West,  and  are  therefore  in  such  places — as  I 
was  informed  on  the  spot — gradually  being  laid  down 
to  grass,  or  turned  to  other  more  promising  agricultural 
uses. 

The  average  produce  per  acre  of  the  whole  State  of 

New  York,  as  published  by  the    State    Agricultural 

Society,*  is,  for — 

Wheat,  14  bushels,  j  Oats,  26  bushels. 

Barley,  16      ...       |  Indian  corn, 25 

Potatoes,  90  bushels,  or  about  1^  tons  an  acre. 

The  averages  for  Monroe  County,  in  the  middle  of 
this  western  district,  are  the  highest ;  and  they  are  as 
follow : — 


Wheat,         19^  bushels. 
Barley,        19 
Oats, 


Indian  corn,     SO  bushels. 
Potatoes,        110 
82  bushels. 


For  a  highly  lauded,  fertile,  wheat-growing  district, 


Transactions  oftJie  State  Agncvltural  Society,  for  1845. 


the  pri( 
which 
culturis 
average 
called, 
treatrae 
portions 
still  be 
western 
their  m( 
than  tha 
and  it  'u 
soils  an 
cultivate 
struggle 
can,  it  a 
more  ski 
to  rural i 
Accon 
this  part 
acres  of  I 
give  a  r 
pay  this 
This,  he 
hence  ma 
This  maj 
all  I  havi 
the  exisi 
Delaware 
opinion  t 
least  in 

•  "Whai 
skill  and  g 
addressed  a 
their  presid 
at  home. 


PROFITS  OF  FARMING. 


173 


ishels. 


the  pride  of  the  State  of  New  York,  the  happy  home  to 
which  the  longing  eyes  of  British  and  Irish  agri- 
culturists have  long  been  directed,  these  are  but  low 
averages.  Either  the  land  is  not  so  good  as  it  has  been 
called,  or  it  is  and  has  been  badly  treated.  The 
treatment  has  certainly  been  bad  ;  but,  as  surely,  large 
portions  of  the  land  are  naturally  very  good,  and  may 
still  be  made  very  productive.  But  these  farmers  of 
western  New  York  are  exposed  to  the  competition  of 
their  more  western  brethren — a  still  nearer  competition 
than  that  under  which  our  British  farmers  are  suiFering  ; 
and  it  is  doubtful  whether,  with  all  their  naturally  rich 
soils  and  low-priced  lands,  they  can,  on  the  longer 
cultivated  and  more  exhausted  tracts,  successfully 
struggle  with  them  in  the  raising  of  wheat.  If  they 
can,  it  must  be  as  with  us  at  home,  by  the  application  of 
more  skill  and  prudence  than  has  hitherto  been  applied 
to  rural  affairs.* 

According  to  Mr  Geddes,  farming  Is  so  profitable  in 
this  part  of  the  State,  that  a  person  can  buy  100  or  150 
acres  of  land,  can  pay  a  part  of  the  price  in  ready  money, 
give  a  mortgage  for  the  remainder  at  7  per  cent,  can 
pay  this  interest,  and  gradually  clear  oflf  the  debt. 
This,  he  said,  was  a  very  common  practice ;  and  that 
hence  many  of  the  farmers  had  mortgages  on  their  land. 
This  may  be*  true  of  Mr  Geddes's  neighbourhood ;  but 
all  I  have  heard  from  others  of  the  general  condition  of 
the  existing  rural  population  north  and  east  of  the 
Delaware,  and  of  Lake  Erie,  is  in  confirmation  of  the 
opinion  that  money  is  not  to  be  made  by  farming,  at 
least  in  these  parts  of  the  States.    I  do  not  speak  at 


•  "  What,  I  ask,  is  to  meet  this  competition  of  the  west,  but  greater 
skill  and  greater  care  in  the  mode  of  agriculture  1 "  These  words, 
addressed  at  the  close  of  1850  to  the  Oswego  Agricultural  Society  by 
their  president,  are  a  re-echo  of  what  has  been  so  often  said  among  us 
at  home. 


174 


PROPERTY  GIVES  NO  INFLUENCE. 


present  of  the  more  western  States,  which  I  have  not 
myself  visited.  A  confortable  livelihood  and  adequate 
support  for  a  family  may  be  obtained  by  ordinary 
industry,  but  money  is  accumulated  with  difficulty  ;  and 
this  is  the  test  of  prosperity  which  all  classes  apply  to 
their  pursuits.  Hence  those  who  wish  to  add  to  their 
capital  more  readily,  or  more  speedily,  betake  them- 
selves to  traffic,  or  to  some  other  more  promising 
employment.  Hence,  also,  one  reason  why  so  many 
farms  are  in  the  market.  The  price  of  land  rises  as  a 
district  becomes  settled;  so  that,  when  a  man's  sons 
grow  up,  and  are  ready  for  farms  of  their  own,  he  is 
unable  to  provide  for  them  by  purchasing  land  in  his 
own  neighbourhood  ;  but  by  selling  his  own  clearing  at 
the  increased  value  it  has  acquired,  he  can  proceed 
further  west,  and,  with  the  price  he  receives,  provide 
farms  in  the  wilderness  for  them  all. 

The  renting  or  hiring  of  land,  especially  for  a  money 
rent,  is  not  more  popular  in  this  district  than  elsewhere, 
even  on  a  lease.  Farmers  do  not  like  to  be  tenants ; 
and  when  land  falls  into  the  hands  of  mortgagees,  and 
must  be  let,  it  is  usually  let  on  shares,  sometimes  on 
halves,  as  it  is  called ;  sometimes  at  two-thirds  of  the 
produce,  as  the  agreement  may  be,  which  is  special 
for  almost  every  case. 

The  usual  size  of  farms  is  from  100  to  150  acres. 
Some  farms  are  as  large  as  1000  acres ;  and  a  family  of 
Monroes  was  mentioned  to  me  in  this  neighbourhood 
who  have  farms  of  this  size  which  they  cultivate  and 
manage  themselves.  A  large  landholder,  unless  he 
farms  all  his  land  himself,  is  looked  upon  with  dislike 
as  an  aristocrat.  Property,  according  to  the  con- 
stitution, confers  no  political  rights,  except  upon 
coloured  men  ;*  and  there  is  a  jealousy  lest  a  man,  by 

*  A  free  coloured  man,  in  the  State  of  New  York,  must  possess  a 
freehold  of  250  dollars  before  he  is  allowed  to  vote  as  a  citizen. 


INDIAN  CORN  FOR  FODDER. 


m 


in  his 


having  others  under  his  influence  as  a  landlord,  should 
acquire  a  proportionate  increase  of  individual  political 
power.  Hence,  if  a  man  does  not  wish  to  cultivate  any 
part  of  his  land,  or  cannot  do  so,  he  sells  it,  and  invests 
the  proceeds  at  7  per  cent,  which  is  readily  obtained. 
He  is,  then,  whatever  his  wealth  may  be,  no  longer 
exposed  to  odium  or  dislike. 

I  went  into  a  fine  field  of  Indian  com  on  Mr  Geddes's 
farm,  upon  which  his  men  were  at  work  reaping. 
The  stalks  are  grasped  in  the  left  hand,  and  cut  down 
near  the  ground  by  means  of  a  heavy  sharp  hook, 
resembling  a  bill-hook.  They  are  then  tied  together  in 
sheaves  and  set  up  to  dry ;  after  which  the  sheaves  are 
carried  to  the  barn,  and  the  head  of  corn  separated  by 
the  hand.  The  corn-sheller  then  quickly  separates  the 
grain  from  the  cob  or  internal  head-stalk. 

The  very  wasteful  practice  exists  in  many  parts  of 
North  America  of  reaping  the  Indian  corn  very  high,  so 
as  to  leave  as  much  as  two  feet  of  the  stalks  in  the 
ground ;  and  in  others,  of  altogether  rejecting  the  stalks 
when  reaped,  using  then  neither  for  food  nor  in  making 
manure.  But  cattle  eat  the  corn-stalks  very  willingly : 
they  are  said  by  some  to  be  equal  to  the  best  nay  in 
feeding,  and  to  produce  more  milk  than  hay  does.  Thus, 
in  addition  to  the  grain,  an  acre  of  land  yields  three  tons 
of  fodder,  which  saves  much  other  food  ;  and  when  cut 
by  means  of  a  chaff-cutter,  may  be  made  the  means  of 
procuring  a  large  supply  of  manure.  Wherever  the 
exhausting  system  has  nearly  done  its  work,  and  the 
value  of  manure  has  begun  at  last  to  be  appreciated, 
attention  will,  by  degrees,  as  is  now  in  some  measure  the 
case  in  New  England  and  New  York,  be  drawn  to  the 
great  value  of  the  hitherto  neglected  corn-stalk.  Of 
course,  the  degree  of  ripeness  to  which  the  com  is 
allowed  to  attain,  t^e  variety  sown,  the  soil  on  which  it 
grows,  the  fierceness  of  the  sun  beneath  w^hich  it  ripens. 


\ 


in 


PLASTERING   MAIZE  AND  POTATOES 


* 


tl: 


and  other  circumstances,  will  affect  its  value  as  a 
nutritive  fodder,  and  will,  in  different  districts,  modify 
the  way  in  which  it  can  be  most  usefully  or  moat 
profitably  employed. 

Much  has  been  said  at  different  times  about  the 
introduction  of  Indian  corn  as  a  field -culture  into 
England — an  object;  which,  I  fear,  our  feeble  summer 
heats,  cloudy  days,  and  early  frosts,  will  prevent  us 
from  ever  extensively  attaining  ;  but  as  a  green  food  to 
be  cut  in  its  unripe  state,  and  given  green  or  dried  for 
winter,  it  might  be  introduced  with  a  chance  of  profitable 
success. 

Plaster  or  gypsum  is  extensively  used  in  this  neigh- 
bourhood, being  almost  the  only  manuring  which  a  large 
portion  of  the  land  receives.  It  is  obtained  abundantly 
among  the  beds  of  the  Onondaga  salt-group,  and  is 
applied  in  the  unburned  state.  It  is  crushed  in  mills, 
where  it  is  sold  in  the  state  of  powder  at  3d.  a  bushel, 
or  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  ton  of  25  bushels. 

The  maize  is  plastered  either  once  broadcast,  at  the 
rate  of  3  bushels  an  acre,  or  twice  with  the  hand,  upon 
each  hill  after  each  hoeing,  at  the  rate  of  1  bushel  an 
acre.  I  saw  four  rows  in  the  fine  field  of  Indian  com 
I  walked  through  which  had  not  been  plastered,  while 
all  the  rest  had — once  only  at  the  rate  of  a  bushe'  an 
acre ;  and  the  difference  in  favour  of  the  plastered  part 
was  very  striking  to  the  eye.  Oats  are  also  much 
benefited  by  plaster,  especially  in  a  dry  season  like  this ; 
and  it  brings  away  clover,  and  makes  it  very  tall.  It 
is  likewise  believed  to  improve  the  potatoes  which  are 
planted  without  manure.  I  caused  a  number  of  plants 
of  the  potatoes  to  which  gypsum  had  and  had  not  been 
applied  to  be  dug  up,  and  certainly  the  number  and 
size  of  the  potatoes  found  at  the  roots,  as  well  as  the 
height  of  the  stems,  were  greatly  in  favour  of  the  plas- 
tered part.      It  was  applied  before  hoeing,  and  then 


MOST  BENEFICIAL  IN  DRY  SEASONS. 


m    » 


an  com 
I,  while 
she'  an 
•ed  part 
y  much 
ie  this ; 
all.  It 
ich  are 

plants 
)t  been 
er  and 

as  the 
6  plas- 
thea 


drawn  up  around  them.  It  is  usual  to  put  it  in  with 
the  sets ;  but  it  was  put  around  the  young  plants  this 
year,  "  only  because,"  said  Mr  Geddes,  "  the  drought 
was  such  that  I  saw  if  something  was  not  done  I  should 
have  no  crop  at  all."  An  English  farmer  would  hardly 
believe  he  had  done  anything  towards  saving  a  crop  of 
potatoes  if  he  had  only  sprinkled  a  bushel  of  gypsum  over 
an  acre  of  the  land  in  which  his  potatoes  were  growing. 

This  beneficial  action  of  gypsum,  notwithstanding 
all  that  has  been  written  upon  the  subject,  is  still  very 
wonderful,  and  not  the  less  so  that  in  so  many  places, 
and  in  so  many  circumstances,  it  fails  to  produce  any 
sensible  effect.  Mr  Kuffin,  states  that  in  the  Carolinas 
it  is  found  to  produce  the  best  eifects  upon  land  which 
has  been  already  limed ;  and  here,  where  its  beneficial 
influence  is  so  manifest,  the  land  is  naturally  rich  in 
lime.  I  have  caused  an  analysis  of  a  portion  of  the 
green  shale  from  which  the  soil  on  Mr  Geddes's  farm  is 
formed  to  be  subsequently  made,  and  have  found  it  to 
contain  as  much  as  23  per  cent  of  carbonate  of  lime, 
and  13  per  cent  of  carbonate  of  magnesia.*  It  may  be, 
therefore,  that  while  this  marly  and  magnesian  charac- 
ter of  its  soil  certainly  makes  the  district  more  favour- 
able to  the  growth  of  wheat,  that  it  has  some  influence 
also  in  disposing  it  to  be  beneficially  acted  upon  by 
gypsum.  .This  substance  does  not  appear  to  require 
rain  to  aid  its  effects,  since  it  is  applied  especially  in 

*  The  composition  of  this  slaty  rock  from  Mr  Qeddes's  farm  at 
Fairmount,  near  Syracuse,  was  as  follows : — 
Water  of  combination, 
Alumina,      .... 
Oxide  of  iron, 
Carbonate  of  lime,   . 
Carbonate  of  magnesia, 
Carbonate  of  iron. 
Insoluble  siliceous  matter  or  silicates, 

100.35 
The  presence  of  phosphoric  acid  in  this  sample  was  not  appreciable. 
VOL.  I.  M 


3.02 

9.85 

2.87 

23.22 

13.81 

1.45 

46.13 


17§ 


WAOES  OF   LABOUKEIIS. 


droughty  seasons.  A  calcareous  soil  and  a  hot  sun  may 
possibly,  therefore,  be  instrumental  towards  its  success. 

This  view  is  further  supported  by  the  prevalent 
opinion  among  farmers  "  that  the  great  use  of  plaster 
is  to  draio  water  from  the  air  ;''''  which  means,  as  I  take  it, 
that  its  action  is  more  apparent  in  dry  than  in  wet  seasons. 

A  very  extreme  view  of  its  influence  upon  the 
weather  was  entertained  by  some  of  the  old  Dutch 
farmers  in  the  United  States — one  of  whom,  according 
to  Judge  Peters,  objected  to  the  use  of  it  because  "  it 
attracted  thunder^ 

Mr  Geddes  works  his  farm  with  four  pairs  of  horses 
and  seven  men,  on  an  average,  all  the  year  through. 
His  head-man  has  313  dollars  a-year.  Other  men 
have  f  dollar  (38.  English)  a-day,  except  in  harvest, 
when  they  have  1^  to  1^  dollars  a-day.  A  good  man, 
taken  into  the  house,  has  150  dollars  (<i&31,  10s.)  a-year 
and  his  board.     They  are  hired  by  the  month. 

Behind  Mr  Geddes's  farm,  at  a  short  distance  towards 
the  south,  rises  the  escarpment  of  the  Helderberg  lime- 
stone, the  outcrop  of  which,  more  or  less  distinct  and 
elevated,  runs  east  to  the  Hudson  River,  and  west  as  far 
as  Lake  Erie,  and  forms  the  southern  limit  of  the  belt  of 
low  rich  land  of  which  this  wheat-region  consists.  He 
drove  me  in  an  open  carriage  for  some  miles  along  this 
escarpment,  and  thus  enabled  me  to  obtain  a  general 
idea  of  the  whole  country,  and  gave  me  an  opportunity 
of  picturing  to  myself  what  this  broad  plain  will  ulti- 
mately become  when  arterial  and  thorough  drainage 
have  done  their  work,  and  the  axe  of  the  clearer  has 
laid  open  tho  broad  patches  of  wilderness  which  still 
stretch,  with  occasional  wide  breaks,  on  almost  every 
side  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach. 

The  Onondaga  salt-group,  on  which  Mr  Geddes's 
farm  reposes,  consists  on  the  surface  of  green  shales 
richly  calcareous,  sometimes  impure  shaly  limestones,  to 


60II.8  OP  THE  ONONDAOA  BALT-OROUP. 


179 


which  succeed  Bimilnr  shales  containing  deposits  or 
rounded  nests  of  gypsum.  These  rest  on  a  porous 
limestone,  beneath  wliich  again  occur  green  and  red 
shales,  calcareous  and  crumbling  like  those  above,  and 
like  them  forming  rich  wheat-soils.  It  has  an  average 
thickness  of  about  1200  feet,  and  forms  a  belt  of  gene- 
rally level  and  undulating  land,  running  east  from 
Syracuse  nearly  a  hundred  miles,  and  west  as  far  as 
Buffalo,  and  again  beyond  the  Niagara  River,  far  into 
Upper  Canada.  The  breadth  of  this  belt  at  Syracuse  is 
about  ten  or  twelve  miles,  and  it  rapidly  tapers  off 
to  nothing  as  we  go  east  towards  the  Hudson  River. 
But  westward  it  first  expands,  in  Seneca  and  Wayne 
counties,  to  a  breadth  of  between  twenty  and  thirty 
miles,  and  afterwards  continues  from  sixteen  to  twenty 
miles  wide  for  nearly  one  hundred  miles,  after  which 
it  contracts  to  about  twelve  miles,  which  is  its  width 
on  the  river  Niagara.  This  formation  alone,  there- 
fore, forms  a  large  area  of  rich  land.  But  the  coun- 
try to  the  north  of  it,  as  far  as  Lake  Erie,  is  also 
underlaid  by  rocks  which  crumble  readily,  and  yield 
soils  of  good  quality,  and  generally  rich  in  lime ;  while 
to  the  south  the  nature  of  the  rocks,  and  the  agency 
of  those  causes  to  which  the  spread  of  drift  is  owing, 
have  both  in  part  contributed  to  the  production  of  good 
grain-growi'ng  land.  Hence,  in  the  so-called  wheat- 
district  of  western  New  York,  is  included  the  broad 
belt  of  about  forty  miles  in  width — from  the  shores  of 
Lake  Ontario,  southwards  to  and  including  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  Hamilton  shales  of  the  New  York  geologists. 
As  this  country  presents  a  really  interesting  illustration 
of  the  influence  of  geological  causes  on  agricultural 
capabilities,  I  subjoin  a  section  across  this  wheat-district 
at  its  broadest  part,  where  it  includes  the  eastern  por- 
tion of  the  county  of  Wayne,  and  a  portion  of  the 
county  of  Seneca. 


ISO 


SECTION  OP  WESTERN  NEW  YORK. 


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EXTENT  OF  .THE  WHEAT- REGION. 


181 


From  the  lake  to  the  beginning  of  the  Marcellus  shale 
— No.  6  on  this  section,  at  a  height  of  216  feet,  the  level 
of  Seneca  Lake — is  about  thirty  miles.  The  rise  of  the 
country,  therefore,  is  very  gradual ;  indeed,  it  is  com- 
paratively level  after  the  first  ascent  over  the  Niagara 
limestone  till  we  reach  the  Marcellus  shale.  Beyond  this 
shale  it  rises  more  rapidly ;  and  at  Ovid  there  is  a  bold 
escarpment  where  the  two  bands  of  limestone  occur. 
In  other  parts  of  the  country  there  are  also  bolder  escarp- 
ments along  the  out-crop  of  the  Niagara  and  Helderberg 
limestones  than  the  section  shows,  forming  marked  and 
successive  steps  as  we  advance  into  the  interior. 

From  the  lake  to  the  Marcellus  shale  is  the  proper 
wheat-district,  though  in  some  places  it  extends  to  the 
Genesee  slate,  and  may  ultimately,  under  a  better  system 
of  culture,  be  generally  extended  thus  far.  But  the 
rapid  rise  of  the  land,  by  altering  the  climate,  will  always 
make  this  higher  region  less  propitious  to  vegetation, 
supposing  the  soil  a?  good  as  those  of  the  Onondaga  and 
more  northern  formations. 

No.  1.  The  Medina  sandstone  consists  of  layers  of 
brownish  sandstone  intermixed  with  shales.  It  presents 
an  interesting  illustration  of  a  fact  of  much  importance 
in  agricultural  geology,  that  the  same  formation  at  dif- 
ferent parts  of  its  extent  may  produce  soils  very  different 
in  their  natbre.  Towards  the  east,  the  sandstone  greatly 
predominates,  forming  sandy  soils  comparatively  poor  in 
agricultural  value.  But  towards  the  west,  the  shaley  or 
clay  beds  increase  in  number  or  thickness ;  so  that  sandy 
loams,  and  finally  clay  loams,  and  excellent  wheat-soils, 
are  produced  from  it. 

No.  2.  The  Clinton  group  consists  of  green  and  blue 
shales  and  limestones,  the  admixture  of  the  fragments  of 
which  forms  an  excellent  wheat-soil. 

No.  3.  The  Niagara  formation  consists  of  the  soft  shales 
below,  and  of  the  thick  impure  limestone  beds  above, 


II 


182 


SOILS  OP  THE  NIAGARA  ROCKS. 


lagara 


which  give  their  character  to  the  N 
the  outiiue  of  the  landscape.  The  shale  alone  forms 
stiff  clays,  which,  from  the  sloping  nature  of  the  surface, 
are  generally  dry  and  susceptible  of  culture ;  while  the 
limestone  alone,  where  it  is  sufficiently  crumbled,  pro- 
duces a  surface  adapted  for  wheat  or  Indian  corn.  But 
where,  from  the  washing  away  of  the  Clinton  beds, 
which  are  only  60  or  80  feet  in  thickness,  the  Niagara 
shales  come  in  contact  with,  or  are  mixed  with  the  debris 
of  the  Medina  sandstone,  soils  are  produced  which  are  of 
"unequalled  fertility" — illustrating  another  important 
principle,  of  which  we  have  many  examples  in  England, 
that,  at  the  junction  of  beds  of  different  kinds  of  rock, 
the  soils  are  often  much  superior  to  those  which  are 
produced  by  the  fragments  of  either  rock  alone. 

No.  4.  'The  Onondaga  salt-group  consists,  as  I  have 
already  said,  of  red  and  green  shales  below,  succeeded 
by  porous  limestones,  and  these  by  beds  of  shale,  includ- 
ing irregular  but  larger  deposits  of  gypsum,  the  whole 
surmounted  by  other  green  shales  or  thin  beds  of  impure 
light-coloured  limestone,  containing  much  magnesia. 
Calcareous  matter  abounds  through  the  whole  of  this 
fertile  formation — and  generally  the  soils  are  rich,  free, 
and  easily  worked. 

No.  5.  The  Helderberg  limestones  and  sandstones, 
where  the  surface  is  hard  and  rocky,  are  often  covered 
with  a  thin  soil  of  less  value  ;  but  where  the  soil  is  deep, 
it  is  of  excellent  quality.  Here,  however,  as  a  wheat- 
region,  the  natural  quality  of  the  surface  begins  to  fall  off. 

No.  6.  The  Marcellus  shale  is  thin,  varying  from  a 
few  feet  to  60  or  80,  so  that  its  effect  on  the  surface  is 
seen  chiefly  by  its  improving  the  Helderberg  series  at 
the  point  of  junction,  and  by  forming  occasional  stripes 
and  patches  of  stiff  clay. 

No.  7.  The  Hamilton  group,  when  alont,  forms  stiff 
dark-coloured  clays,  which  are  less  rich  in  calcareous 


PORTAGE  AND  CHEMUNG  SOILS. 


matter  than  the  Onondaga  soils,  and  therefore  less  free 
and  more  difficult  and  expensive  to  work,  but  capable  of 
producirg  excellent  wheat.  A  large  portion  of  the 
celebrated  Genesee  Valley  rests  upon  this  formation ; 
but  its  natural  soil  is  there  covered  or  modified  by  the 
drifted  fragments  of  the  Niagara  and  other  more  north- 
erly limestones.  This  group  is  of  great  thickness,  and 
forms  an  extensive  belt  of  country,  the  soils  of  which  in 
some  places  are  rich  in  lime,  and  are  submitted  to 
arable  culture.  They  are  eveiyvvhere  difficult  to  keep 
clean,  however,  and  are  especially  infected  with  the 
pigeon-weed  {Lithospermum.)  They  are,  for  the  most 
part,  therefore — like  our  own  stiff  clays  of  the  lias  and 
other  formations — left  to  perpetual  grass,  which  they 
produce  of  excellent  quality.  Here,  therefore,  the  graz- 
ing and  dairy  country  of  western  New  York  commences. 

No.  8.  The  black  Genesee  slate  is  too  thin  to  form 
an  important  agricultural  feature  in  the  country.  It 
crumbles  more  slowly  than  the  Hamilton  shale,  but 
where  it  mixes  with  the  thin  limestones  and  calcareous 
shales  beneath  it,  good  soils  are  produced. 

No.  9.  The  Portage  and  Chemung  groups  consist  of 
alternations  of  shales,  poor  in  lime  below,  with  flag- 
stones and  massive  sandstones.  They  extend  to  the 
borders  of  Pennsylvania,  where  they  reach  the  height  of 
1000  feet  above  Lake  Ontario.  The  district  occupied 
by  these  groups  presents  a  complete  contrast  to  the 
wheat-region.  When  first  cleared,  it  produces  crops  of 
wheat ;  but  after  the  first  crops — as  is  the  case  in  many 
parts  of  New  Brunswick,  which  rest  upon  similar  rocks 
— wheat-becomes  uncertain,  and  spring  grain  only  can 
be  sown.  It  is  therefore  poorer,  less  cleared  and  culti- 
vated, and  possesses  a  poorer  race  of  cultivators.  The 
farmers  devote  their  attention  chiefly  to  the  rearing  of 
stock,  and  to  the  dairy  husbandry. 

To  teach  a  man  the  close  relation  of  natural  agricul- 


184 


INFLUENCE  OF  DRIFT. 


I' 


tural  capabilities  and  early  agricultural  prosperity  with 
the  nature  of  the  rocks  of  a  country,  it  is  only  neces- 
sary to  ascend  from  the  valley  of  the  Onondaga  shales 
to  the  hills  of  the  Portage  sandstones. 

But  another  interesting  and  instructive  feature  pre- 
sents itself  in  this  wheat-growing  belt.  The  waters 
which  in  former  times  descended  this  region  came  from 
the  north,  and  have  drifted  the  materials  of  the  more 
northerly  over  the  edges  of  the  more  southernly  rocks. 
Thus  the  materials  of  the  Medina  sandstone  are  made 
to  overlap  the  Clinton  and  Niagara  clays,  and  so  to 
mingle  with,  lighten,  and  improve  the  soils  formed  from 
them.  The  Niagara  shale,  again,  has  overlapped  the 
overlying  Niagara  limestone,  mixed  with  it,  and  deepened 
its  naturally  thin  and  more  slowly  crumbling  debris. 
So  the  various  soft  beds  of  the  Onondaga  salt-group 
have  been  intermingled,  and  a  comparatively  low,  level, 
and  undulating  surface  been  given  to  the  whole.  The 
abundant  materials  derived  from  this  easily  crumbling 
group,  again,  have  been  spread  over  the  Helderberg 
limestones,  and  the  fragments  of  these  over  the  Mar- 
cellus  and  Hamilton  shales,  adding  to  the  calcareous 
matter  of  these  latter  rocks,  and  thus  widening  the  belt 
of  wheat-growing  country  beyond  its  natural  limits. 

This  widening  is  especially  visible  along  the  north 
and  south  valleys,  which  penetrate  far  Into  the  Hamilton 
and  Portage  groups  of  rocks,  and  into  which  the  frag- 
ments of  the  Onondaga  group  were  naturally  carried  by 
the  rushing  water.  Up  the  valley  of  the  Genesee  Elver, 
and  into  the  outlets  of  the  Seneca  and  Cayuga  lakes, 
this  drift  has  penetrated  farthest ;  and  to  its  presence  is 
due  the  peculiar  agricultural  excellence  for  which  the 
soils  of  these  localities  are  known,  and  which  the  rocks 
on  which  they  rest  could  not  alone  have  imparted  to 
them. 

The  first  freshness  of  nearly  all  these  naturally  fertile 


' 


SALT- SPRINGS  OF  THIS  DISTRICT. 


185 


fertile 


lands,  which  have  been  long  under  cultivation,  has  been 
rubbed  off  them  by  ignorant  and  improvident  culture ; 
but  skill,  the  child  of  greater  knowledge,  can  restore 
them  again  to  great  productiveness.  How  far  it  will 
pay  to  improve  even  this  country,  for  the  growth  of 
wheat — as  our  best  English  and  Scotch  farmers  would 
like  to  improve  it — while  the  still  uncleared  lands  of  the 
north-west  are  competitors  in  the  wheat-market,  I  do  not 
possess  sufficient  knowledge  of  local  circumstances  to 
enable  me  to  decide. 

With  Mr  Geddes  I  afterwards  visited  the  salt-works 
for  which  this  district  is  so  celebrated,  and  to  which 
the  city  of  Syracuse  is  so  much  indebted  for  its  rapid 
prosperity. 

Salt-springs  occur  over  the  whole  of  this  belt  of 
country,  from  the  Medina  sandstone  to  the  Portage 
group  inclusive ;  and  salt  has  been,  or  still  is,  more  or 
less  extensively  manufactured  from  them.  But  they 
are  most  abundant,  and  yield  most  copious  supplies  of 
water,  in  the  Onondaga  salt-group,  which  derives  its 
name  from  them.  In  this  group  they  are  generally 
richer  also  in  saline  matter,  and  yield  a  purer  salt. 

As  in  so  many  other  localities,  the  gypsum  appears  to 
be  connected  in  its  mode  of  deposition  with  that  of 
mineral  salt.  There  occurs,  indeed,  in  this  locality — 
upon  Mr  Geddes's  farm  among  other  places — a  very 
interesting  proof  of  the  close  connection  of  these  two 
mineral  deposits.  In  the  green  shale-beds  are  found 
numerous  pseudo-morphous  masses,  sometimes  as  much 
as  six  or  eight  inches  in  diameter,'  which  appear  to 
be  casts  of  the  interior  of  large  hollow  crystals  of 
common  salt,  such  as  are  formed,  of  a  smaller  size,  on 
the  surface  of  salt-pans,  or  of  bodies  of  salt-water  which 
are  evaporated  in  the  open  air.  Such  hopper-shaped 
casts,  as  they  are  called,  were  very  numerous  in  the 
locality  in  which  I  saw  them,  throughout  the  entire  body 


186 


STRENGTH  OF  THE  BRINE. 


of  the  shale,  and  seemed  to  shove  that  when  this  shale 
was  deposited  in  the  state  of  a  fine  mud,  it  was  impreg- 
nated with  salt — probably  was  at  the  bottom  of  a  salt 
lake,  liable  to  be  dried  up  or  concentrated  by  evapora- 
tion, and  that,  when  so  concentrated,  the  salt  crystallised 
among  the  mud  in  large  crystals,  as  impure  salts  usually 
do,  and  impressed  the  shapes  now  seen  upon  the  plastic 
mud.  No  solid  salt,  however,  has  ever  been  found  in 
connection  with  these  pseudo-morphic  masses.  It  has  no 
doubt  been  long  dissolved  out  by  rain  and  spring  waters 
sinking  through  from  above.  But  while  the  salt-springs 
which  occur  throw  light  on  their  formation,  these  crys- 
tals, on  the  other  hand,  explain  in  what  way  the  upper 
Silurian  strata  of  western  New  York  have  in  so  many 
places  become  impregnated  with  salt. 

The  wells  or  borings  from  which  the  brine  is  obtained 
are  sunk  in  the  marshy  ground  which  borders  the  Onon- 
daga Lake.  This  lake,  which  is  about  five  miles  long 
and  one  mile  broad,  rests  on  a  bed  of  impervious  marl, 
beneath  which  lies  a  thick  deposit  of  drift,  occupying  a 
valley  hollowed  out  of  the  shales  of  the  salt-group. 
Into  this  drift  the  borings  have  been  carried  to  a  depth 
of  nearly  350  feet;  and  the  supply  has  generally  been 
more  copious,  and  the  water  more  strongly  impregnated 
with  salt,  the  deeper  the  boring  has  penetrated. 

If  the  quantity  of  salt  contained  in  water  which  is 
saturated  be  represented  by  100,  that  contained  in  the 
strongest  springs  near  Syracuse  is  76.  A  hundred- 
weight of  salt  is  obtained  from  about  700  gallons  of  sea- 
water  ;  but  of  the  water  from  these  springs  80  gallons,  on 
an  average,  yield  an  equal  weight — or  100  pounds  of 
the  water  yield  from  15  to  18  pounds  of  salt. 

It  is  found,  however,  that,  by  constant  pumping,  the 
water  gradually  becomes  weaker  in  salt,  and  unfit  for 
profitable  use  ;  when  either  the  water  in  that  well  must 
be  allowed  to  rest  for  a  time,  or  new  borings  must  be 


SALT  MANUFACTURED. 


187 


put  down.  This  shows  that  the  comparatively  fresh- 
water from  above,  in  percolating  through  the  strata  of 
the  salt-group  to  the  bottom  of  the  valley  in  which  the 
drift  lies,  becomes  impregnated  with  salt  contained  in 
these  strata ;  but  no  facts  have  yet  been  observed  which 
justify  any  confident  opinion  as  to  the  actual  existence 
of  beds  of  solid  rock-salt  in  this  formation. 

The  quantity  of  water  pumped  up  and  consumed  in 
the  summer  and  autumn,  when  the  salt-manufacture  is 
most  active,  amounts  to  about  2,000,000  of  gallons  a-day, 
yielding  about  35,000  bushels  of  salt,  weighing  56  pounds 
each.  The  total  annual  production  of  salt  in  1848  was 
4,700,000  bushels.  The  importance  of  this  production 
of  salt,  in  reference  to  the  consumption  and  wants,  not 
only  of  the  State  of  New  York,  but  of  the  whole  United 
States,  will  appear,  on  comparing  the  above  quantity 
with  the  importations  of  foreign  salt  into  the  port  of 
New  York,  and  into  those  of  the  whole  Union  respec- 
tively, in  1848 — and  with  the  whole  quantity  consumed 
in  the  State  of  New  York  and  by  the  inhabitants  of  the 
United  States.     Thus  there  was 

Manufactured  at  Syracuse,         .        4,737,126  bushels. 
Imported  at  New  York,  .         1,882,473     ... 

Imported  into  the  United  States,        8,967,600     ... 

so  that  the  manufacture  at  Syracuse  is  equal  to  one-half 
of  the  entire  foreign  importation  into  the  States. 

As  to  the  relation  of  the  quantity  manufactured  to 
the  actual  wants  of  the  State,  it  was  shown  some  years 
ago  by  Mr  Meriam,  that  the  quantity  of  salt  consumed 
in  the  United  States  was  at  the  rate  of  three  pecks  (42 
lbs.)  to  each  individual.  Assuming  the  population  of  the 
State  of  New  York  to  be  3,000,000,  and  that  of  the 
whole  Union  20,000,000,  in  round  numbers,  the  whole 
consumption  will  be — 

For  the  State  of  New  York,         .         2,250,000  bushels. 
For  the  United  States,  .       15,000,000     ... 


-4)^ 


188 


CONSUMPTION  OF  SALT  IN  THE  STATES. 


!  I 


Hence  the  State  of  New  York  makes  much  more  salt 
than  is  necessary  for  its  own  wants ;  so  that,  while  it  im- 
ports at  New  York  nearly  one-half  of  its  own  consumption, 
it  on  the  other  hand  exports,  by  way  of  the  lakes,  to 
Canada  and  the  Western  States,  about  3,500,000  bushels. 

The  large  alleged  individual  consumption  of  salt  in 
the  United  States  is  worthy  of  attention.  In  ordinaiy 
families  in  Great  Britain  the  quantity  of  salt  used  for 
domestic  purposes  is  about  12  lb.  for  each  individual ; 
and  if  as  much  more  be  used  for  all  other  purposes,  the 
consumption  ought  to  amount  to  24  lb.  a-head,  or,  in  all, 
to  less  than  10,000,000  of  bushels.  But  in  the  United 
States  the  consumption  is  estimated  at  three  pecks,  or 
42  lb.,  for  each  individual — which  large  allowance,  con- 
sidering there  are  few  chemical  manufactories  to  eat  it 
up,  and  little  is  employed  for  agricultural  purposes, 
appears  to  imply  either  a  large  waste,  or  an  outlet  for  it 
which  does  not  exist  in  this  country.  It  is  possible  that 
the  large  quantities  of  salt  provision  which  are  prepared 
for  home  consumption  and  for  export — "  the  immense 
packing  business  of  the  West,"*  as  it  is  called— may  be 
a  main  cause  of  the  increased  proportional  use  of  salt  in 
North  America,  if  the  estimate  be  a  correct  one. 

The  salt-springs  of  Onondaga  are  the  property  of  the 
State  ;  and  by  an  article  of  the  Constitution,  they  and  the 
lands  necessary  for  the  manufacture  of  the  salt  can  never 
be  alienated.  The  wells  are  sunk  and  the  water  pumped 
up  into  reservoirs  at  the  expense  of  the  State,  and  thence 
distributed  to  the  various  manufactories,  for  a  charge  of 
one  cent  upon  each  bushel  of  salt  manufactured.  Until 
the  year  1846,  the  duty  levied  as  a  charge  for  the  water 
amounted  to  six  cents  per  bushel,  and  a  clear  annual 
revenue  was  obtained  from  the  springs  of  about  200,000 
dollars. 

*  In  1 848,  34,000,000  of  pounds  of  salted  meats,  and  nearly  3,000,000 
of  pounds  of  butter,  were  exported  from  the  States. 


MODES  OF  MANUFACTURE. 


189 


In  that  year,  however,  the  duty  was  reduced  to  one 
cent,  and  they  now  yield  a  net  revenue  of  about  30,000 
dollars  a-year.  But  the  production  has  been  largely 
increased,  and  the  State  is  greatly  benefited  in  other 
ways  by  the  reduction.  About  twelve  cents  a  bushel  is 
now  the  market  price  of  the  Syracuse  salt. 

The  salt  is  manufactured  in  three  ways:  First,  by 
solar  evaporation.  This  is  conducted  in  large  wooden 
vats  18i^  feet  square,  and  about  12  inches  deep,  provided 
with  movable  lids,  by  which  they  can  be  easily  covered 
in  rainy  weather.  These  vats  are  arranged  in  long  rows 
communicating  with  each,  and  at  different  levels,  so  that 
the  water  which  is  put  in  at  one  end  can  be  made  to  flow 
forward  as  its  concentration  advances.  The  iron  is  the 
first  constituent  of  the  water  which  is  deposited ;  after  that 
the  gypsum,  which  forms  beautiful  small  crystals  on  the 
bottom  and  sides  of  the  vats ;  and  then  the  common  salt,  in 
large  coarse  crystals  like  those  of  bay  salt — the  deli- 
quescent magnesia  and  lime  salts  remaining  in  the 
waste  mother  liquors. 

The  second  mode  is  similar  to  that  followed  on  our 
coasts  in  extracting  salt  from  sea- water,  by  evaporation 
in  large  shallow  iron  pans.  The  third  method  is  by 
boiling  the  water  in  deep  iron  pots,  or  kettles,  as  they  are 
called,  of  which  forty,  built  up  in  two  parallel  rows,  form 
what  is  called  a  block.  These  kettles  are  supplied  with 
water  from  the  private  cistern  of  the  establishment  in 
which  the  brine  has  been  purified,  by  standing  some  time, 
or  by  the  addition  of  quicklime,  which  carries  down  the 
iron,  magnesia,  and  some  other  impurities.  As  the  water 
boils  away,  gypsum  first  falls  in  the  kettle,  and  is  con- 
tinually ladled  out  as  it  collects  at  the  bottom ;  and  as  the 
liquor  concentrates,  the  salt  falls  in  the  form  of  a  fine 
white  powder,  which  is  lifted  out,  set  to  drain,  and  dried. 
It  is  then  ready  for  market.  This  is  the  favourite  and 
quickest  mode ;  but  it  makes  a  less  pure  salt.    About 


190 


ORDER  OF  DEPOSITION  OP  THE 


300  acres  are  covered  with  vats  for  solar  evaporation ; 
and  these,  in  1848,  yielded  713,000  bushels,  while  only 
75  acres  are  occupied  by  the  blocks ^  which  manufactured 
upwards  of  4,000,000  bushels  of  fine  salt.  About  one 
half  of  the  coarse  salt  is  crushed  or  ground,  and  sold 
under  the  name  of  dairy  salt,  being  preferred  for  dairy 
purposes.  -.  ) 

In  the  order  of  deposition  of  the  several  ingredients  of 
the  natural  brine  in  the  solar  vats,  Mr  Yanuxem  finds  a 
resemblance  to,  and  an  explanation  of,  the  mode  and 
order  of  deposition  of  the  several  members  of  the  Onon- 
daga salt-group.  "  This  group  shows  first  a  thick  mass 
coloured  red  with  iron,  being  its  red  shale."  This  cor- 
responds with  the  oxide  of  iron  first  deposited  in  the  vats. 
"  Above  the  red  shales  are  the  gypseous  masses,  towards 
the  upper  part  of  which  are  the  salt  cavities  " — (that  is, 
the  hopper-shaped  cavities  in  which  crystals  of  salt  are 
supposed  formerly  to  have  existed.)  "  Above  the  whole 
of  these  deposits  is  the  sulphate  of  magnesia,  its  (former) 
existence  there  being  manifested  by  the  needle-form  cavi- 
ties "  in  the  rock.*  This  explanation  is  very  natural, 
and  not  void  of  beauty.  It  may  require  some  modifica- 
tions to  adapt  it  to  the  local  phenomena  in  detail — such  as 
the  occurrence  of  the  green  and  blue  shales,  the  lime.stones, 
and  the  calcareous  marls.  It  is,  however,  neither  an 
unnatural  nor  unlikely  general  representation  of  the  pro- 
bable cause  of  some  of  the  special  chemical  characters 
exhibited  by  the  several  successive  beds. 

A  more  refined  examination  of  the  salts  successively 
deposited  in  the  open  wooden  troughs  in  which  the  water 
is  exposed  to  spontaneous  evaporation  might  lead  to  inte- 
resting results  of  another  kind.  The  brine  most  probably 
contains  both  iodine  and  bromine ;  and  it  is  possible  that,  at 
a  certain  stage  of  the  evaporation,  the  saline  compounds  of 


Geology  of  the  Third  Dutrict,  p.  109. 


INGREDIENTS  OP  THE    WATER. 


191 


these  substances  (iodides  and  bromides)  may  cither  bo 
deposited  more  abundantly,  or  retained  in  solution  in 
larger  proportion  than  the  common  salt,  and  might  in 
consequence,  in  such  large  operations,  be  largely,  easily, 
and  profitably  extracted.  I  suggest  the  examination 
of  this  point  to  my  chemical  friends  in  the  State  of  New 
York  especially,  as  a  very  likely  source  of  abundant 
supplies  of  bromine. 


i 


CHAPTEE   VII. 


Railway  to  BuffUlo. — The  Americans  a  clevci'  people. — Incorrectness  of 
Bpeoch  on  botli  sides  of  the  Atlantic. — Joo  Smith,  founder  of  the 
Mormons. — Outline  of  his  history  wiiile  in  the  State  of  New  York. — 
His  removal  to  Missouri,  to  Ohio,  and  Illinois  successively.  His 
imprisonment  and  death. — Itapid  progresH  of  his  sect. — New  State  of 
Utah,  on  the  Salt  Lake.— Outline  and  character  of  the  book  of  Mor- 
mon.— Its  claims  as  an  American  revelation. — Canandagua.— City  of 
Rochester);  its  rapid  lise. — Genesee  flour. — Money -value  of  farms 
on  the  QencHOo  llivor.— Profits  of  farming  in  this  valley. — Mr  Wads- 
worth's  farms  and  farming. — Rent,  and  rotation  on  his  land. — Capital 
of  fai'iuers  on  tliis  estate. — Inducements  to  invest  money  in  land  in 
New  York  State. — Sowing  and  reaping  of  wheat. — Relative  values  of 
rural  produce  and  of  human  labour. — Average  produce  of  the  Geneseo 
cbuntrj. — New  York  does  not  produce  wheat  enough  for  its  own 
consumption. — North-east  America  not  a  dangerous  competitor  in 
the  English  wheat  market. — Upper  Canada  might  for  a  time  success- 
fully compete  with  the  English  farmer. — Duty  upon  Canadian  wheat 
in  the  United  States  ports. — Expected  eflFocts  of  a  repeal  of  this  duty. 
— Made  an  argument  for  annexation. — Importance  of  the  direct  trade 
to  Europe  by  the  St  Lawrence. — Erie  Canal ;  its  length,  and  that  of  its 
branches. — Amount  of  traffic  and  revenue. — Number  of  emigrants 
from  different  coimtries. — Cost  of  passage  from  New  York  to  Lake 
Erie. — Influence  of  the  New  England  States  on  the  development  of 
the  new  States. — Democratic  party  in  the  United  States. — Principles 
of  the  Old  Hunkere  and  the  Barnburners. — Forest  and  half  cleared 
land  on  approaching  Buffalo.—  Speculators  in  land. 


Sept  15. — At  seven  in  the  morning  I  was  at  the  rail- 
way station  to  take  my  departure  for  Buffalo.  I  here 
encountered  one  of  tho  e  embarrassing  mes-mtendres 
which  are  unavoidable  when  travelling  among  people  who 
will  use  old  words  in  new  senses.    I  was  introduced  to 


USE  OP  THE  WORD  "  CLEVER." 


193 


he  rail- 
I  liere 
tendres 
le  who 
iced  to 


a  gentlemanly-looking  physician,  who  followed  up  his 
question  of  how  I  liked  tiie  country,  with  the  quc»)Jon, 
"  Don't  you  find  us  a  very  clever  people?"  This  was  a 
thrust  so  decidedly  home  that  I  could  not  believe  ho 
meant  what  he  asked.  Ho  looked  also  perfectly  inno- 
cent, but  evidently  expecting  an  answer.  As  I  could 
not  conscientiously  say  yes,  I  hesitatingly  said  what  had 
more  than  once  occurred  to  me  in  passing  through  the 
States — "  At  least  you  think  yourselves  so."  But  the 
instant  the  words  had  escaped  me,  I  apologised  for  my 
rude  speech,  recollecting  that,  only  two  or  three  days 
before,  an  American  lady  had  remarked  to  me  that  this 
word,  in  the  States,  is  often  used  in  the  sense  of  "  good- 
natured,  or  ready  to  oblige."  That  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  wherever  I  have  been,  are  clever  in  this 
sense,  I  can  honestly  say.  I  added,  therefore,  avec 
empressement,  "  I  understood  your  question  wrongly ; 
in  your  sense  of  the  word,  you  are  a  clever  people." 
My  new  acquaintance  felt  the  situation  as  much  as  I 
did,  and  explained  his  question  as  a  bit  of  local  slang. 
A  stranger  ought  not  willingly  to  give  offence  to  a 
people  among  whom  he  is  travelling,  nor  to  say  what  is 
likely  to  hurt  their  feelings ;  but  this  was  a  case  where 
the  fault  was  on  the  side  of  those  who  are  not  careful  to 
maintain  the  fountains  of  speech  in  their  primitive 
purity.       • 

Were  we,  however,  to  criticise  the  home  speech  of 
the  midddle  classes  among  ourselves,  as  we  feel  inclined 
to  notice  peculiarities  abroad,  we  should  find  many 
more  instances  of  incorrectness  than  we  are  generally 
aware  of.  Just  before  I  left  home,  a  lady  of  my 
acquaintance,  the  daughter  and  sister  of  a  clergyman, 
being  asked  of  her  sister's  health,  answered  that  "  she 
was  very  shabby;"  and  here,  in  this  western  New 
York,  I  have  been  talking  to  an  Englishman,  on  his 

VOL.  I.  N 


.1  I 


194 


JOE  SMITH,  THE   MORMON  PROPHET. 


travels  like  myself,  who  tells  me  that  the  boat  on  Lake 
Ontario  does  not  sail  whilst  to-morrow.  Though  these 
expressions  are  quite  intelligible,  yet  they  afford  some 
ground  for  the  opinion  which  a  Yankee  will  occasionally 
express,  that  his  countrymen  talk  English  quite  as  well 
as  ourselves. 

Of  course,  I  do  not  allude  to  provincial  dialects,  which 
have  not  yet  had  time  to  spring  up  in  the  States,  but 
which,  as  with  us,  will  gradually  arise  out  of  the  dif- 
ferent nationalities  settled  in  different  districts. 

The  distance  by  rail  to  Buffalo  is  180  miles,  which 
we  took  fully  twelve  hours  to  accomplish.  The  whole 
day's  ride  was  along  the  belt  of  wheat-country  of  which 
I  have  already  spoken,  though  by  no  means  in  a  straight 
line,  or  always  on  its  richest  and  most  improved  parts. 

In  thei  future  history  of  mankind,  if  present  appear- 
ances are  to  be  trusted,  the  counties  of  Wayne  and 
Ontario,  through  which  we  passed  in  the  early  part  of 
the  day,  are  likely  to  derive  an  interest  and  impor- 
tance, in  the  eyes  of  a  numerous  body  of  people,  from  a 
circumstance  whoUv  unconnected  either  with  their  social 
progress,  or  with  their  natural  productions  or  capabilities. 
In  these  counties  lie  the  scenes  of  the  early  passages  in 
the  life  of  Joe  Smith,  the  founder  of  the  sect  of  the 
Mormons. 

Born  in  December  1805,  in  Sharon,  Windsor  County, 
State  of  Vermont,  he  removed  with  his  father,  about 
1815,  to  a  small  farm  in  Palmyra,  Wayne  County,  New 
York,  and  assisted  hira  on  the  farm  till  1826.  He 
received  little  education,  read  indifferently,  wrote  and 
spelt  badly,  knew  little  of  arithmetic,  and,  in  all  other 
branches  of  learning  he  was,  to  the  day  of  his  death, 
exceedingly  ignorant. 

His  own  account  of  his  religious  progress  is,  that  as 
early  as  fifteen  years  of  age  he  began  to  have  serious 
ideas  regarding  the  future  state,  that  he  got  into  occa- 


HIS  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  PLATES. 


195 


sional  ecstasies,  and  that  in  1823,  during  one  of  these 
ecstasies,  he  was  visited  by  an  angel,  who  told  him  that 
his  sins  were  forgiven — that  the  time  was  at  hand  when 
the  gospel  in  its  fulness  was  to  be  preached  to  all 
nations — that  the  American  Indians  were  a  remnant  of 
Israel,  who,  when  they  first  emigrated  to  America,  were 
an  enlightened  people,  possessing  a  knowledge  of  the 
true  God,  and  enjoying  his  favour — that  the  prophets 
and  inspired  writers  among  them  had  kept  a  history 
or  record  of  their  proceedings — that  these  records  were 
safely  deposited — and  that,  if  faithful,  he  was  to  be  the 
favoured  instrument  for  bringing  them  to  light. 

On  the  following  day,  according  to  instructions  from 
the  angel,  he  went  to  a  hill  which  he  calls  Cumorah,  in 
Palmyra  township,  Wayne  County,  and  there,  in  a  stone 
chest,  after  a  little  digging,  he  saw  the  records ;  but  it 
was  not  till  four  years  after,  in  September  1827,  that 
"  the  angel  of  the  Lord  delivered  the  records  into  his 
hands." 

"  These  records  were  engraved  on  plates  which  had 
the  appearance  of  gold,  were  seven  by  eight  inches  in 
size,  and  thinner  than  common  tin,  and  were  covered  on 
both  sides  with  Egyptian  characters,  small  and  beauti- 
fully engraved.  They  were  bound  together  in  a  volume 
like  the  leaves  of  a  book,  and  were  fastened  at  one  edge 
with  thrcs  rings  running  through  the  whole.  The 
volume  was  about  six  inches  in  thickness,  bore  many 
marks  of  antiquity,  and  part  of  it  was  sealed.  With  the 
records  was  found  a  curious  instrument,  called  by  the 
ancients  Urim  and  Thummim,  which  consisted  of  two 
transparent  stones,  clear  as  crystal,  and  set  in  two  rims 
of  a  bow  " — a  pair  of  pebble  spectacles,  in  other  words, 
or  "  helps  to  read  "  unknown  tongues. 

The  report  of  his  discovery  having  got  abroad,  his 
house  Vv'as  beset,  he  was  mobbed,  and  his  life  was  endan- 
gered by  persons  who  wished  to  possess  themselves  of 


^— ^.o— -^ulli  MiJIWl, 


\X-l 


\ 


196 


CHURCH  OF  THE  LATTER-DAY  SAINTS. 


the  plates,  He  therefore  packed  up  his  goods,  concealed 
the  plates  in  a  barrel  of  beans,  and  proceeded  across  the 
country  to  the  northern  part  of  Pennsylvania,  near  the 
Susquehannah  River,  where  his  father-in-law  resided. 
Here,  "  by  the  gift  and  power  of  God,  through  the 
means  of  the  Urim  and  Thummira,  he  began  to  translate 
the  record,  and,  being  a  poor  writer,  he  employed  a 
scribe  to  write  the  translation  as  it  came  from  his  mouth.'^ 
In  1830  a  large  edition  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  was 
published.  It  professes  to  be  an  abridgment  of  the 
records  made  by  the  prophet  Mormon  of  the  people  of 
the  Nephites,  and  left  to  his  son  Moroni  to  finish.  It 
is  regarded  by  the  Latter-day  Saints  with  the  same 
veneration  as  the  New  Testament  is  among  Christians. 

The  Church  of  the  Latter-day  Saints  was  organised 
on  the  6th  of  April  1830,  at  Manchester,  in  Ontario 
County,  New  York.  Its  numbers  at  first  were  few,  but 
they  rapidly  increased,  and  in  1833  removed  to  the  State 
of  Missouri,  and  purchased  a  large  tract  of  land  in 
Jackson  County.  Here  their  neighbours  tarred  and 
feathered  some,  killed  others,  and  compelled  the  whole 
to  remove.  They  then  established  themselves  in  Clay 
County,  in  the  same  State,  but  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  river.  From  this  place  again,  in  1835,  they  removed 
eastward  to  the  State  of  Ohio,  settled  at  Kirtland,  in 
Gauga  County,  about  twenty  miles  from  Cleveland,  and 
began  to  build  a  temple,  upon  which  sixty-thousand 
dollars  were  expended.  At  Kirtland  a  bank  was  incor- 
porated by  Joe  and  his  friends,  property  was  bought  with 
its  notes,  and  settled  upon  the  Saints,  after  which  the  bank 
failed — as  many  others  did  about  the  same  time — and  Ohio 
became  too  hot  for  the  Mormons.  Again,  therefore,  the 
Prophet,  his  apostles,  and  a  great  body  of  the  Saints,  left 
their  home  and  temple,  went  westward  a  second  time  to 
the  State  of  Missouri,  purchased  a  large  tract  of  land  in 
Caldwell  County,  in  Missouri,  and  built  the  city  of  the 


CITY  AND  TEMPLE  OF  NAUVOO. 


197 


onccaled 
ross  the 
aear  the 
resided, 
ugh  the 
translate 
)loyed  a 
mouth." 
non  was 
;  of  the 
)eople  of 
dish.  It 
he  same 
istians. 
irganised 

Ontario 

few,  but 

the  State 

land  in 
•red  and 
le  whole 

in  Clay 
B  side  of 
removed 
tland,  in 
and,  and 
thousand 
as  incor- 
ght  with 
the  bank 
and  Ohio 

fore,  the 

lints,  left 

1  time  to 
land  in 

y  of  the 


"  Far  West."  Here  difficulties  soon  beset  them,  and  in 
August  1838  became  so  serious  that  the  military  were 
called  in ;  and  the  Mormons  were  finally  driven,  unjustly, 
harshly,  and  oppressively,  by  force  of  arms,  from  the 
State  of  Missouri,  and  sought  protection  in  the  State  of 
Illinois,  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Mississippi.  They 
were  well  received  in  this  State,  and  after  wandering 
for  some  time — while  their  leader,  Joe  Smith,  was  in 
jail — they  bought  a  beautiful  tract  of  land  in  Hancock 
County,  and,  in  the  spring  of  1840,  began  to  build  the 
city  and  temple  of  Nauvoo.  The  legislature  of  Illinois 
at  first  passed  an  act  giving  great,  and,  probably, 
injudicious  privileges  to  this  city,  which,  in  1844,  was 
already  the  largest  in  the  State,  and  contained  a  popula- 
tion of  about  twenty  thousand  souls.  The  temple,  too, 
was  of  great  size  and  magnificence — being  128  feet  long 
and  77  feet  high,  and  stood  on  an  elevated  situation, 
from  which  it  was  visible  to  a  distance  of  25  or  30  miles. 
In  the  interior  was  an  immense  baptismal  font,  in 
imitation  of  the  brazen  sea  of  Solomon — "a  stone 
reservoir,  resting  upon  the  backs  of  twelve  oxen,  also 
cut  out  of  stone,  and  as  large  as  life." 

But  persecution  followed  them  to  Illinois,  provoked  in 
some  degree,  no  doubt,  by  their  own  behaviour, 
especially  in  making  and  carrying  into  eflfect  city 
ordinances,  which  were  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the 
State.  The  people  of  the  adjoining  townships  rose  in 
arms,  and  were  joined  by  numbers  of  the  old  enemies  of 
the  Mormons  from  Missouri.  The  militia  were  called 
out ;  and,  to  prevent  further  evils,  Joe  Smith  and  one  of 
his  brothers,  with  several  other  influential  Saints,  on  an 
assurance  of  safety  and  protection  from  the  governor  of 
the  State,  were  induced  to  surrender  themselves  for  trial 
in  respect  of  the  charges  brought  against  them,  and  were 
conducted  to  prison.  Here  they  were  inconsiderately 
left  by  the -Governor,  on   the  following  day,  under  a 


198 


NEW  STATE  OP  UTAH. 


guard  of  seven  or  eight  men.  These  were  overpowered 
the  same  afternoon  by  an  armed  mob,  who  killed  Joe 
Smith  and  his  brother,  and  then  made  their  escape. 
After  this,  the  Mormons  remained  a  short  time  longer  in 
the  Holy  City ;  but  the  wound  was  too  deep  seated  to 
admit  of  permanent  quiet  on  either  part,  and  they  were 
at  last  driven  out  by  force,  and  compelled  to  abandon  or 
sacrifice  their  property.  Such  as  escaped  this  last 
persecution,  after  traversing  the  boundless  prairies,  the 
deserts  of  the  Far  West,  and  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
appear  at  last  to  have  found  a  resting-place  near  the 
Great  Salt  Lake  in  Oregon.  They  are  increasing 
faster  since  this  last  catastrophe  than  ever ;  and  are  daily 
receiving  large  accessions  of  new  members  from  Europe, 
especially  from  Great  Britain.  They  form  the  nucleus 
of  the  i;ew  State  of  Utah,  this  year  erected  into  a 
territory  of  the  United  States,  and  likely,  in  the  next 
session  of  Congress,  to  be  elevated  to  the  dignity  of  an 
independent  State.  So  rapidly  has  persecution  helped 
on  this  offspring  of  ignorance,  and  tended  to  give  a 
permanent  establishment,  and  a  bright  future,  to  a 
system,  not  simply  of  pure  invention,  but  of  blasphemous 
impiety,  and  folly  the  most  insane. 

The  Booh  of  Mormon^  which  is  the  written  guide  of 
this  new  sect,  consists  of  a  series  of  professedly  historical 
books — a  desultory  and  feeble  imitation  of  the  Jewish 
chronicles  and  prophetical  books — in  which,  for  the 
poetry  and  warnings  of  the  ancient  prophets,  are 
substituted  a  succession  of  unconnected  rhapsodies  and 
repetitions,  such  as  might  form  the  perorations  of  ranting 
addresses  by  a  field  preacher,  to  a  very  ignorant 
audience. 

The  book,  in  the  edition  I  possess,  consists  in  all  of 
634  pages,  of  which  the  first  580  contain  the  history  of 

fictitious    personage    called    Lehi  and    that   of   his 


a 


descendants  for  the  space  of  a  thousand  years. 


BOOK  OP  MORMON. 


199 


This  Lehi,  a  descendant  of  Joseph  the  son  of  Jacob, 
with  his  family  left  Jerusalem  in  the  beginning  of  the 
reign  of  Zedekiah,  six  hundred  years  before  Christ,  and, 
passing  the  Red  Sea,  journeyed  eastward  for  eight 
years  till  they  reached  the  shore  of  a  wide  sea.  There 
they  built  a  ship,  and,  embarking,  were  carried  at  length 
to  the  promised  land,  where  they  settled  and  multiplied. 
Among  the  sons  of  Lehi  one  was  called  Laman  and 
another  Nephi.  The  former  was  wicked,  and  a  disbeliever 
in  the  law  of  Moses  and  the  prophets;  the  latter,  obedient 
and  faithful,  and  a  believer  in  the  coming  of  Christ. 
Under  the  leadership  of  these  two  opposing  brothers,  the 
rest  of  the  family  and  their  descendants  arranged  them- 
selves, forming  the  Lamanites  and  the  Nephites,  between 
whom  wars  and  perpetual  hostilities  arose.  The 
Lamanites  were  idle  hunters,  living  in  tents,  eating  raw 
flesh,  and  having  only  a  girdle  round  their  loins.  The 
skin  of  Laman  and  his  followers  became  black ;  while 
that  of  Nephi  and  his  people,  who  tilled  the  land, 
retained  its  original  whiteness.  As  with  the  Jews,  the 
Nephites  were  successful  when  they  were  obedient  to 
the  law ;  and,  when  they  fell  away  to  disobedience  and 
wickedness,  the  Lamanites  had  the  better,  and  put  many 
to  death.  At  the  end  of  about  four  hundred  years,  a 
portion  of  the  righteous  Nephites  under  Mosiah,  having 
left  their  land,  travelled  far  across  the  wilderness,  and 
discovered  the  city  of  Zarahemla,  which  was  peopled 
by  the  descendants  of  a  colony  of  Jews  who  had 
wandered  from  Jerusalem  when  King  Zedekiah  was 
carried  away  captive  to  Babylon,  twelve  years  after  the 
emigration  of  Lehi.  But  they  were  heathens,  possessed 
no  copy  of  the  law,  and  had  corrupted  their  language. 
They  received  the  Nephites  warmly,  however,  learned 
their  language,  and  gladly  accepted  the  law  of  Moses. 

This  occupies  158  pages.  The  history  of  the  next  two 
hundred  years  follows  this  new  people,   and  that  of 


.  aB^.  .  .^_1  J.^ 


- fc-. .-•*#, 


200 


APPEARANCE  OF  CHRIST  IN  AMERICA  I 


occasional  converts  from  the  Lamanites — called  still  by 
the  general  name  of  Nephites  in  their  struggles  with 
the  Lamanites,  and  the  alternations  of  defeat  and  success 
which  accompany  disobedience  or  the  contrary.  This 
occupies  several  books,  and  brings  us  to  the  486th 
page,  and  the  period  of  the  birth  of  Christ.  This  event 
is  signified  to  the  people  of  Zarahemla  by  a  great  light, 
which  made  the  night  as  light  as  mid-day.  And  thirty- 
three  years  after  there  was  darkness  for  three  days,  and 
thunderings  and  earthquakes,  and  the  destruction  of 
cities  and  people.  This  was  a  sign  of  the  crucifixion. 
Soon  after  this,  Christ  himself  appears  to  this  people 
of  Zarahemla  in  America,  repeats  to  them  in  long 
addresses  the  substance  of  his  numerous  sayings  and 
discourses,  as  recorded  by  the  apostles ;  chooses  twelve 
to  go  forth  and  preach  and  baptize ;  and  then  disappears. 
On  occasion  of  a  great  baptizing  by  the  apostles, 
however,  he  appears  again  ;  imparts  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
all,  makes  long  discourses,  and  disappears.  And, 
finally,  to  the  apostles  themselves  he  appears  a  third 
time;  and  addresses  them  in  ill-assorted  extracts  and 
paraphrases  of  his  New  Testament  sayings. 

The  account  of  these  visits  of  our  Saviour  to  the 
American  Nephites,  and  of  his  sayings,  occupies  about  48 
pages.  For  about  400  years,  the  Christian  doctrine  and 
church  thus  planted  among  the  Nephites  had  various 
fortune;  increasing  at  first,  and  prospering,  but,  as  corrup- 
tions came  in,  encountering  adversity.  The  Lamanites 
were  still  their  fierce  enemies ;  and  as  wickedness  and 
corrupt  doctrine  began  to  prevail  among  the  Christians, 
the  Lamanites  gained  more  advantages.  It  would  appear, 
from  Joe  Smith's  descriptions,  that  he  means  the  war  to 
have  begun  at  the  Isthmus  of  Darien — where  the 
Nephites  were  settled,  and  occupied  the  country  to  the 
north,  while  the  Lamanites  lived  south  of  the  isthmus. 
From  the  isthmus  the  Nephites  were  gradually  driven 


BOOK  OF  ETHER. 


201 


towards  the  east,  till  finally,  at  the  hill  of  Cumorah,  near 
Palmyra,  in  Wayne  County,  western  New  York,  the 
last  battle  was  fought,  in  which,  with  the  loss  of 
230,000  fighting  men,  the  Nephites  were  exterminated ! 
Among  the  very  few  survivors  was  Moroni,  the  last  of 
the  scribes,  who  deposited  in  this  hill  the  metal  plates 
which  the  virtuous  Joe  Smith  was  selected  to  receive 
from  the  hands  of  the  angel.  This  occupies  to  the 
580th  page. 

But  now,  in  the  Book  of  Ether,  which  follows,  Joe 
becomes  more  bold,  and  goes  back  to  the  tower  of  Babel 
for  another  tribe  of  fair  people,  whom  he  brings  over 
and  settles  in  America.  At  the  confusion  of  the 
languages.  Ether  and  his  brethren  journeyed  to  the 
great  sea,  and,  after  a  sojourn  of  four  years  on  the 
shore,  built  boats  under  the  Divine  direction,  water-tight, 
and  covered  over  like  walnuts,  with  a  bright  stone  in 
each  end  to  give  light !  And  when  they  had  embarked 
in  their  tight  boats,  a  strong  wind  arose,  blowing 
towards  the  promised  land,  and  for  344  days  it  blew 
them  along  the  water,  till  they  arrived  safe  at  the  shore. 
Here,  like  the  sons  of  Lehi,  they  increased  and 
prospered,  and  had  kings  and  prophets  and  wars,  and 
were  split  into  parties,  who  fought  with  each  other. 
Finally,  Shiz  rose  in  rebellion  against  Coriantumr,  the 
last  king,  and  they  fought  with  alternate  success,  till 
two  millions  of  mighty  men,  with  their  wives  and 
children,  had  been  slain !  And,  after  this,  all  the  people 
were  gathered  either  on  the  one  side  or  the  other,  and 
fought  for  many  days,  till  only  Coriantumr  alone 
remained  alive ! 

This  foolibh  history  is  written  with  the  professedly 
religious  purpose  of  showing  the  punishment  from  the 
hand  of  God  which  wicked  behaviour  certainly  entails ; 
and,  ^ith  some  trifling  moralities  of  Moroni,  completes 
the  Book  of  Mormon. 


I . 


202 


JOE  SMITH'S  DOCTRINES. 


Joseph  Smith  does  not  affect  in  this  gospel  of  his  to 
bring  in  any  new  doctrine,  or  to  supersede  the  Bible, 
but  to  restore  "  many  plain  and  precious  things  which 
have  been  taken  away  from  the  first  book  by  the 
abominable  church,  the  Mother  of  Harlots."  It  is  full  of 
sillinesses,  follies,  and  anachronisms  ;  but  I  have  not  dis- 
covered, in  my  cursory  review,  any  of  the  immoralities  or 
positive  licentiousness  which  he  himself  practised,  directly 
inculcated.  He  teaches  faith  in  Christ,  human  depravity, 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity,  of  the  atonement,  and  of  salvation  only  through 
Christ.  He  recommends  the  sacraments  of  baptism  and 
the  Lord's  Supper ;  and,  whatever  his  own  conduct  and 
that  of  his  people  may  be,  certainly  in  his  book 
prohibits  polygamy  and  priestcraft. 

The  wickedness  of  his  book  consists  in  its  being  a  lie 
from  beginning  to  end,  and  of  himself  in  being 
throughout  an  impostor.  Pretending  to  be  a  "  seer" — 
which,  he  says,  is  greater  than  a  prophet — he  puts  into 
the  hands  of  his  followers  a  work  of  pure  invention  as  a 
religious  guide  inspired  by  God,  and  which,  among  his 
followers,  is  to  take  the  place  of  the  Bible.  Though  an 
ignorant  man,  he  was  possessed  of  much  shrewdness. 
He  courted  persecution,  though  he  hoped  to  profit,  not 
to  die  by  it.  Unfortunately,  his  enemies,  by  their 
inconsiderate  persecution,  have  made  him  a  martyr  for 
his  opinions,  and  have  given  a  stability  to  his  sect  which 
nothing  may  now  be  able  to  shake.  It  was  urged  by 
Smith  himself  that  the  New  World  was  as  deserving  of 
a  direct  revelation  as  the  Old ;  and  his  disciples  press 
upon  their  hearers  that,  as  an  American  revelation^  this 
system  has  peculiar  claims  upon  their  regard  and 
acceptance.  The  feeling  of  nationality  being  thus 
connected  with  the  new  sect,  weak-minded  native-born 
Americans  might  be  swayed  by  patriotic  motives  in 
connecting  themselves  with  it.     But  it  is  mortifying  to 


CITY  OP  ROCHESTER. 


203 


learn  that  most  numerous  accessions  are  being  made  to 
the  body  in  their  new  home  bj  converts  proceeding 
from  this  country.*  Under  the  name  of  the  "  Latter- 
day  Saints,"  professing  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  the 
delusions  of  the  system  are  hidden  from  the  masses  by 
the  emissaries  who  have  been  despatched  into  various 
countries  to  recruit  their  numbers  among  the  ignorant 
and  devoutly-inclined  lovers  of  novelty.  Who  can 
tell  what  two  centuries  may  do  in  the  way  of  giving  a 
historical  position  to  this  rising  heresy  ? 

Leaving  behind  us  the  townships  of  Palmyra  and 
Manchester,  the  scene  of  Joseph's  first  transactions,  and 
of  the  last  battles  of  his  heroes,  who  seem  to  have  fought 
very  much  like  the  Kilkenny  cats,  and  Canandagua,  a 
pretty  town  of  one  long  street,  running  down  to  the  lake 
of  the  same  name,  we  rapidly  approached  the  city  of 
Rochester,  on  the  falls  of  the  Genesee  River.  The  valley 
of  this  river  Is  celebrated  for  its  production  of  wheat, 
and  for  the  first-class  flour  Into  which  its  grain  is  con- 
verted by  the  Rochester  millers.  On  the  falls  of  the 
Genesee  river  have  been  established  the  numerous  mills 
and  factories  for  which  the  city  of  Rochester  is  famous. 
In  1812,  only  ten  houses  stood  where,  in  1850,  a  city 
with  25,000  Inhabitants  had  already  arisen.  The  flour- 
mills,  which  are  driven  by  the  great  water-power,  are 
the  chief  distinction  of  Rochester.  Some  of  these  con- 
sume  upwards  of  2000  bushels  of  wheat  a-day,  and  pro- 
duce, in  the  same  time,  500  barrels  of  flour.  But  It  has 
cotton-mills,  carpet  factories,  paper-mills,  machine  and 
engine  shops,  plough,  thrashing-machine,  and  other 
agricultural  implement  manufactories,    and  ship-yards. 

*  It  has  beeu  recently  stated  that  the  Mormon  emigration  from 
Liverpool  alone,  up  to  the  present  year,  has  been  1 3,500,  and  that  they 
have,  on  the  whole,  been  superior  to  and  better  provided  than  the 
other  classes  of  emigrants.  Of  course,  many  moi'c  of  this  sect  must 
have  emigrated  from  other  ports,  and  many  even  from  the  port  of 
Liverpool,  whose  faith  and  ultimate  destination  was  not  known. 


1 


204 


VALUE  OF  NEW   BLOOD. 


Its  literary  tastes  may  be  judged  of  from  the  fact  that, 
besides  common  and  grammar  schools,  a  Protestant  uni- 
versity has  just  been  opened  ;  that  the  Roman  Catholics 
have  a  seminary,  which  they  talk  of  converting  into  a 
university ;  and  that,  besides  general  libraries,  it  has  a 
law  library  belonging  to  the  State,  already  containing 
3000  volumes. 

Not  only  rapid  prosperity,  but  an  active  and  energetic 
population  of  men  horn  elsewhere^  is  implied  in  all  this. 
Local  advantages  gave  rise  to  Rochester,  and  will 
advance  it  very  much  farther.  But  whatever  be  the 
local  position,  an  introduction  of  new  blood — of  men  who 
will  look  upon  old  and  familiar  things  with  new  eyes — 
always  helps  a  place  forward.  Progress,  therefore,  can- 
not fail  to  be  rapid,  when,  in  addition  to  manifest  phy- 
sical advantages,  still  imperfectly  developed,  the  blood 
of  the  whole  city  is  new^  untied  and  untrammelled  by 
old  notions,  or  hampered  by  forefather  prejudices. 

Rochester  is  the  proper  home  of  the  celebrated  Genesee 
flour.  But  the  Genesee  flour  of  the  New  York  mer- 
chants is  something  like  the  Wallsend  coals  of  the  Lon- 
don Coal  Exchange.  It  is  the  brand  or  designation  of 
a  superior  quality  of  flour,  which  has  obtained  a  name 
in  the  New  York  and  Atlantic  markets,  and  which  is 
made  now  from  wheat  grown  in  various  western  locali- 
ties. The  quantity  of  flour  manufactured  at  Rochester, 
in  1848,  was  about  700,000  barrels,  requiring  upwards 
of  3,000,000  of  bushels  of  wheat.  Of  the  yearly 
increasing  quantity  thus  ground  up  by  the  Rochester 
millers,  a  large  proportion  is  annually  brought  from 
other  States  by  way  of  the  Erie  Canal,  the  railroad,  and 
the  lakes. 

The  Genesee  Valley,  which  gives  its  name  to  the  finest 
samples  of  flour,  produces  wheat  of  the  best  quality. 
The  soil  on  which  it  is  grown  is  for  the  most  part  a  rich 
drift  clay — the  ruins  of  the  Onondaga  salt-group — inter- 


THE  GENESEE  VALLEY. 


205 


mixed  with  fragments  of  the  Niagara  and  Clinton  lime- 
stones. A  very  comfortable  race  of  farmers  is  located 
in  this  valley.  The  richest  bottom  or  intervale  land, 
cut  for  hay  or  kept  for  grazing,  is  worth  120  dollars,  or 
.£'26  an  acre.  The  upland,  the  mixed  clay  and  lime- 
stone gravel  land,  of  which  I  have  already  spoken,  when 
sold  in  farms  of  100  to  150  acres — the  usual  size  on  this 
river — brings  from  35  to  70  dollars,  according  to  the 
value  of  the  buildings  that  are  upon  it.  The  bottoms, 
when  ploughed  up  and  sown  to  wheat,  are  liable  to  rust; 
but  the  uplands  yield  very  certain  crops  of  15  to  20 
bushels  an  acre.  On  crops  of  15  bushels  the  farmers  of 
all  this  wheat-region  can  live  very  well. 

Land,  of  which  a  man  with  a  good  team  will  plough 
1^  to  1^  acres  a-day,  costs  six  dollars  an  acre  to  culti- 
vate, including  seed,  and  3^  more  to  harvest  and  thrash. 
Fifteen  bushels,  at  1  to  1^  dollars,  (4s.  4d.  to  48.  lOd.,) 
give  a  return  of  15  to  17  dollars,  leaving  a  profit  of 
about  six  dollars,  or  26s.  an  acre,  for  landlord  and 
tenant's  remuneration,  and  for  interest  of  capital  invested 
in  farming  stock.  That  this  calculation  is  near  the 
truth,  is  shown  by  the  rate  at  which  the  average  land, 
producing  16  to  18  bushels,  is  occasionally  let,  where  it 
suits  parties  to  make  such  an  arrangement.  In  these 
cases,  7  to  7^  bushels  of  wheat  an  acre  are  paid  for  the 
use  of  the  land.  In  taking  a  farm  at  such  a  rent  as  this 
— half  the  produce — the  tenant  makes  a  sacrifice  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  an  outlet  for  superfluous  home 
labour.  Our  small  farmers  of  50  or  100  acres,  who 
cultivate  with  their  own  families,  do  the  same  when  they 
consent  to  pay  rents  which  leave  them,  out  of  the  pro- 
duce of  their  farm,  at  the  end  of  the  year,  less  than  the 
usual  wages  of  the  labour  expended  upon  it,  for  the 
accommodation  and  comfort  of  being  their  own  masters, 
and  of  living  and  working  together. 

But  all  through  this  wheat-district  much  land  is  let 


■ 


t»m.i,..ie^_\ 


206 


RENT  AND  PROFITS  ON  THE  GENESEE. 


' 


upon  shares,  the  cultivator  paying  one-half  of  the  clear 
produce,  with  such  details  as  the  parties  may  arrange. 
As  in  New  Brunswick,  this  system  is  more  popular  than 
that  of  a  fixed,  and  especially  a  money  rent. 

I  had  subsequently  an  opportunity  of  meeting  Mr 
Wadaworth,  one  of  the  largest  landowners  in  the  State, 
possessing  a  large  tract  of  the  wheat-land  in  the  Genesee 
Valley.  This  gentleman  himself  farms  1000  acres,  and 
clears  from  3  to  7^  per  cent  on  the  whole  capital 
employed,  including  the  market  value  of  the  land,  and 
of  the  buildings  and  stock  upon  it.  For  a  gentleman 
farmer,  this  would  be  a  very  fair  return  ;  but  it  is  scarcely 
enough  in  a  country  where  land  gives  no  political  and 
little  social  influence,  and  where,  by  lending  his  money, 
and  doing  nothing,  a  man  can  obtain  7  per  cent  certain. 

Mr  Wadfeworth  informed  me  that  the  system  of  rent- 
ing farms  is  not  unpopular  in  his  district ;  that  his  farms 
used  to  be  let  nominally  on  shares,  but  in  reality  at  a 
fixed  grain  rent.  The  produce  was  estimated  at  18 
bushels  of  wheat  an  acre,  and  he  took  one-third,  or  6 
bushels,  as  the  rent.  Latterly  he  has  been  taking  8 
bushels,  and  the  farmers  pay  it  readily.  The  rotation  he 
prescribes  is  wheat  followed  by  two  years  clover,  cut  for 
hay  or  eaten  off  the  first  year,  and  eaten  oflP  or  ploughed 
in  the  second.  For  the  wheat  land  he  takes  6  or  8 
bushels  of  grain  of  the  best  quality,  delivered  in  kind  at 
a  warehouse  on  the  canal,  where  it  is  always  sure  of  an 
immediate  and  ready  market ;  *  for  the  clover  land  he 
takes  a  money-rent  of  two  or  three  dollars  an  acre,  as 
may  be  fixed  by  inspection  of  an  agent,  every  year. 

*  This  is  the  old  Scotch  system  of  corn  rents  without  the  averages, 
which  the  easy  sale  of  wheat  in  this  locality  renders  unnecessary. 
Nothing  seems  fairer  for  all  parties,  more  suited  to  a  proper  rotation  of 
crops,  or  less  likely  to  be  affected  injuriously  either  for  landlord  or 
tenant  by  changes  in  com  laws,  than  that  which  is  still  followed  where 
old  leases  are  unexpired.  Thus  on  the  Hamilton  estate,  within  6  miles 
of  Glasgow,  a  farm  of  150  Scottish  acres,  the  lease  of  which  is  just 


FARMINO  CAPITAL  TOO   SMALL. 


207 


These  tillage  farms  are  cultivated  by  persona  who  do 
not  usually  possess  more  than  £1  an  atcro  of  capital ;  they 
afford,  in  fact,  an  opportunity  for  per8<  us  to  begin  life  who 
do  not  possess  money  enough  of  their  own  to  buy  farms, 
at  least  in  that  neighbourhood.  What  kind  or  quality  of 
farming  would  be  looked  for,  in  any  of  our  best  districts, 
from  men  with  such  a  capital  as  this  ? 

I  may  here  remark,  indeed,  as  my  general  impression 
in  regard  to  the,  farming  of  the  whole  of  north-eastern 
America  it  was  my  fortune  to  visit — that  too  little  capital 
is  employed  in  cultivating  the  land.  The  land  itself,  and 
the  labour  of  their  families,  is  nearly  all  the  capital  which 
most  of  tlie  farmers  possess.  And  if  any  of  them  save  a 
hundred  dollars,  they  generally  prefer  to  lend  it  on  mort- 
gage at  high  interest,  or  to  embark  it  in  some  other 
pursuit  which  they  think  will  pay  better  than  farming, 
than  to  lay  it  out  in  bettering  their  farms,  or  in  establish- 
ing a  more  generous  husbandry. 

Of  the  rich  grazing  land,  an  acre  and  a  half  fattens  off 
a  beast  which  in  the  lean  state  will  cost  £5.  Those  who 
hold  this  land,  therefore,  require  a  capital  of  £3  or  £4  an 
acre  to  stock  it. 

With  a  capital  of  £1  an  acre  only,  an  exhausting 
system  of  culture  can  scarcely  fail  to  be  followed — espe- 
cially as  the  custom  is  to  remain  only  from  four  to  eight 
years,  and  during  this  time  to  save  as  much  as  enables 
the  tenant  to  buy  a  farm  somewhere  for  himself.  Hence 
the  necessity  for  the  strictest  adherence  to  a  rotation 
such  as  that  I  have  mentioned. 

On  the  whole,  under  this  system  of  management,  Mr 
Wadsworth  calculates  that  his  land  yields  him  five  per 

expiring,  pays  a  rent  of  62  quarters  each  of  wheat,  barley,  and  oats,  or 
3  bushels  of  wheat,  3  of  barley,  and  3  of  oats  per  imperial  acre,  reckoned 
at  the  average  prices  for  the  same  year  between  November  and  February. 
Eight  bushels  of  wheat  per  acre  is  a  higher  rent  than  the  above  nine  of 
mixed  crops ;  but  the  land  of  the  farm  I  allude  to  is  not  naturally  so 
good  as  that  upon  the  Genesee. 


20B 


LAND  CONFERS  NO  INFLUENCE. 


cent  upon  its  market  value  in  the  foiin  of  rent,  besides 
which  he  has  the  benefit  of  the  continual  rise  in  the  value 
of  land,  which  has  added  enormously  to  the  value  of  this 
property  since  it  came  into  the  hands  of  his  family.  But 
this  return  is  scarcely  advantageous  enough  to  present  an 
inducement  to  moneyed  men  of  the  Old  World  to  invest 
their  capital  in  the  purchase  of  large  tracts  of  land  in  tlie 
New.  The  possession  of  this  land  carries  with  it  little 
increased  consideration,  and  confers  no  political  influence. 
On  the  contrary,  in  most  places  it  is  a  cause  of  jealousy, 
distrust,  and  dislike.  The  feeling  is  that  the  living  man, 
and  not  the  dead  chattels  that  he  owns,  ought  to  influence 
the  destinies  of  the  country. 

The  wheat  in  this  Genesee  region  is  sown  in  the  last 
week  of  August,  or  first  of  September.  It  thus  gets  well 
rooted  before  the  winter  sets  in,  and  is  not  so  liable  to  be 
thrown  out.  It  begins  to  grow  again  about  the  first  of 
May,  and  from  that  time  is  ripe  in  about  "eighty  days, 
being  usually  reaped  in  the  last  week  of  July.  This 
rapid  growth,  in  Mr  Wadsworth's  opinion,  stands  in  the 
way  of  their  raising  generally,  in  this  district,  crops  of 
wheat  so  large  as  ours.  The  heavy  crops  which  are 
occasionally  reaped,  however,  are  not  in  favour  of  this 
opinion.  It  is,  nevertheless,  an  interesting  subject  for 
experiment.  What  the  land  of  this  region  would  pro- 
duce, under  skilful  culture  steadily  conducted,  is  not  yet 
known.  If  the  land  were  enriched  with  substances  which, 
while  they  did  not  raise  so  great  a  rush  of  straw  as  to 
increase  the  chances  of  rust,  should  especially  promote 
the  growth  and  filling  of  the  ear,  the  true  influence  of 
the  climate  upon  this  important  crop  would  be  more 
distinctly  made  out. 

An  interesting  fact  connected  with  the  agricultural 
history  of  this  couuti./  is,  the  change  that  has  taken  place 
in  the  relative  values  of  human  labour  and  of  rural 
produce.    Forty  years  ago  the  wages  of  a  man  for  a 


AVERAGE  PRODUCE  OP  WESTERN  NEW   YORK.     209 

year  were  valued  at  the  price  of  one  yoke  of  oxen,  or  of 
50  bushels  of  wheat.  Now  they  are  equal  to  the  value 
of  two  yoke  of  oxen,  or  of  100  bushels  of  wheat.  This 
does  not  indicate  a  corresponding  money-rise  in  the 
wages  of  labour.  The  diiFerence  is  partly  caused  by  a 
fall  in  the  market-value  of  agricultural  produce ;  but,  as 
all  other  necessaries  of  life  are  at  least  as  cheap  as  they 
were  forty  years  ago,  the  condition  of  the  agricultural 
labourer  must  have  greatly  improved.  I  doubt  if,  in 
any  part  of  our  own  islands,  the  same  can  be  said  in 
regard  to  the  condition  of  our  agricultural  labourers. 

What  this  district  of  country  originally  was  in  ferti- 
lity may  be  inferred  from  v/hat  it  still  is.  The  average 
produce  per  acre  of  its  three  most  fertile  counties,  as 
recently  published,  is  represented  by  the  numbers  in  the 


following  table : — 

Genesee. 

Ontario. 

Nia^ra. 

Wheat,  . 

164 

16 

18 

Barley,  . 

15 

19 

19 

Oats, 

23 

32 

29 

Rye,      . 

10 

9 

81 

Buckwheat,    . 

19 

21 

17 

Indian  corn, 

25 

29 

29 

Potatoes, 

125 

106 

110 

Turnips, 

105 

148 

156 

Compare  the  numbers  opposite  wheat  and  barley,  and  it 
will  appear  at  once  that  this  is  eminently  a  wheat- 
country  ;  and  then  consider  that,  after  all  the  exhausting 
culture  to  which  it  has  been  so  long  subjected,  it  still 
yields  an  average  of  from  16  to  18  bushels  of  wheat  per 
acre,  and  we  shall  have  an  idea  of  what  its  natural 
fertility  as  a  region  must  originally  have  been — what,  I 
may  say,  its  fertility  will  still  become,  when  the  exertions 
of  its  agricultural  societies  and  of  its  many  spirited  im- 
provers shall  have  produced  their  destined  effect,  (I  hope 
I  may  so  speak  of  it)  upon  the  practical  cultivation  of 
its  grateful  soil. 
VOL.  I.  0 


210 


WHEAT-PEODUCING  POWER  OF 


But,  with  all  the  fame  and  natural  capability  of  this 
fine  western  region  of  New  York,  the  Empire  state  as  a 
whole  does  not  at  present — according  to  the  best  infor- 
mation I  have  been  able  to  obtain — produce  wheat 
enough  for  the  consumption  of  its  own  inhabitants.  In 
round  numbers,  the  population  of  the  State  of  New 
York  is  about  three  millions,  while  the  produce  of  wheat 
in  bushels  is  about  15  millions — or  at  the  rate  of  five 
bushels  to  each  inhabitant.  If,  according  to  our  English 
calculations,  eight  imperial  bushels  a-head  are  necessary 
to  support  our  people,  the  New  York  people,  though 
they  may  consume  a  large  quantity  of  Indian  corn,  can 
have  little  surplus  left  out  of  five  bushels  a-head.* 

My  impression  is,  therefore,  that  our  British  farmers 
have  little  to  fear  from  the  competition  of  the  wheat- 
growers  of  all  that  part  of  North  America  which  lies 
between  the  Atlantic  and  the  St  Lawrence — from  New- 
foundland on  the  east,  as  far  west  as  the  head  of  Lake 
Ontario.  The  whole  of  this  region,  as  to  wheat-grow- 
ing, is  more  or  less  in  sympathy  with  the  English  farmer 
—  struggling  against  the  vigorous  competition  of  the 
new  North- Western  States.  Wheat  is  already  more 
costly  to  raise  than  in  former  years,  even  in  the  least 
exhausted  portions  of  this  north-eastern  region ;  while 
the  North- Western  States,  until  the  rise  or  growth  of  a 
consuming  population  among  themselves,  or  till  the  fresh- 
ness of  the  virgin  soils  is  rubbed  off,  can  afford  to  export 
supplies  of  wheat  at  a  comparatively  nominal  price. 

I  would  not  be  so  rash  as  to  say,  or  so  uncharitable 
as  to  hope,  that  the  wheat-producing  powers  of  the 
region  east  of  Lake  Erie,  and  south  of  the  St  Lawrence, 
will  never  be  much  greater  than  it  is  now ;  I  believe  it 
may  become,  and  I  hope  the  time  may  soon  arrive,  when 
more  skill  and  knowledge  shall  have  forced  it  to  become 

•  This  argument  is  stronger,  if  it  is  also  recollected  that  an  imperial 
quarter  is  a  little  more  than  nine  American  bushels. 


WESTERN   NEW  YORK. 


211 


far  more  productive,  as  a  whole,  than  it  is  now.  But  by 
that  time  a  larger  home  population  also  will  have  arisen 
to  consume  it,  while  the  very  introduction  of  more 
generous  and  more  artificial  forms  of  culture  will  add  to 
the  cost  of  production  on  the  whole.  So  that,  even  when 
such  better  agricultural  times  arrive  in  this  region,  the 
English  farmer  Avill  still,  in  my  opinion,  have  little  to 
fear  from  this  quarter  of  the  American  continent.  He 
may  find  here  new  Lothians  and  Norfolks  and  Lin- 
colnshires,  and  a  reproduction  of  the  best  farmers  of  all 
these  districts — their  very  sons  and  grandsons,  in  fact, 
settled  on  American  farms ;  but  I  do  not  expect  he 
will  ever,  in  ordinary  seasons,  have  reason  to  look  upon 
them  with  bitter  feelings,  as  so  rivalling  him  in  the 
British  wheat  market  as  to  lessen  his  own  home  profits, 
or  seriously  to  diminish  the  comforts  of  his  family. 

Were  Upper  Canada  seriously  to  turn  her  thoughts  to 
the  reasonable  development  of  her  material  interests, 
she  ought  to  become,  for  a  while,  the  most  formidable 
American  competitor  of  the  English  farmer,  in  the  home 
markets. 

The  duty  upon  Canadian  wheat  on  entering  the  States 
is  20  per  cent.  This,  as  is  well  known,  is  loudly  com- 
plained of,  and  it  is  desirable  that  it  should  be  removed, 
on  the  broad  principle  of  abolishing  restrictions  upon 
commerce — if  not  for  those  special  reasons  which  our 
North  American  colonies  put  forward  most  strongly. 
But  notwithstanding  this  duty,  the  Rochester  millers 
cross  the  lake,  buy  the  Canadian  wheat  at  Toronto,  pay 
the  freight  across,  and  the  20  per  cent  duty,  and  after 
all,  make  a  profit  on  their  flour  in  New  York.  Is  this 
first-class  flour  with  the  Genesee  brand  made  for  the 
home  market  only — to  suit  a  special  American  taste — and 
is  a  higher  price  given  to  the  Rochester  millers  on  this 
account  ?  If  so,  one  could  understand  why,  with  the  view 
of  manufacturing  for  this  special  market,  the  Rochester 


212    PRICES  OF  WHEAT  IN  ROCHESTER  AND  TORONTO. 

millers  could  afford  to  pay  this  premium  for  Canadian 
wheat  of  equal  quality  with  that  of  western  New  York, 
and  grown  upon  similar  soils.  But  such  is  not  the  case. 
Abimdance  of  this  flour,  if  I  am  not  misinformed,  comes 
to  Liverpool,  and  is  sold  in  the  English,  and  I  believe 
also  in  the  New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia  markets. 
What  a  premium  there  is  here,  therefore,  upon  the 
expenditure  of  Canadian  enterprise  I 

At  the  period  of  my  visit  to  the  neighbourhood  of 
Rochester,  wheat  was  selling  in  the  Toronto  market  at 
75  to  80  cents  a  bushel ;  while  at  Rochester,  the  same 
qualities  brought  106  to  112^  cents — being  a  difference 
of  about  25  per  cont.  In  six  hours  a  packet  can  cross 
from  Toronto  to  Rochester  and  bring  grain  at  2  cents  a 
bushel ;  and  it  is  the  opinion  of  the  Upper  Canadians, 
that  if  they  had  reciprocity  with  the  States,  either  by 
annexation  or  otherwise,  their  wheat  would  rise  to  the 
full  amount  of  the  duty  now  paid  on  importation  to  the 
States.  The  Rochester  and  Oswego  millers,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  favourable  to  reciprocity,  because  they  think 
that  a  large  proportion  of  the  duty  now  paid,  would 
come  into  their  pockets ;  while  the  New  York  farmers 
are  naturally  averse  to  the  introduction  of  Canadian 
wheat  duty-free,  to  compete  with,  and  reduce  the  price 
of  their  own,  at  the  season  of  the  year  in  which  it  is  in 
greatest  request. 

I  shall  return  to  this  subject  hereafter,  when  I  speak 
of  my  observations  in  Canada.  I  will  only  observe,  in 
this  place,  that  the  expectations  of  the  Canadians  from 
this  reciprocity  are  in  my  opinion  greatly  exaggerated. 
The  differential  duty  ought  to  be  removed  if  possible,  on 
the  ground  that  all  such  obstructions  stand  in  the  way 
of  the  full  and  natural  development  of  the  resources  of 
great  countries,  and  create  artificial  interests,  as  they 
have  done  among  us,  which  it  is  very  difficult  after- 
wards to  do  away  with.    But  the  policy  of  Canada  is  to 


IMPORTANCE   OF  THE  ST  LAWRENCE. 


213 


encourage  direct  communication  with  Europe,  and  to 
endeavour  to  perfect  itself  to  make  more  use  of  the 
navigation  of  the  St  Lawrence.     Western  America  is 
now  beginning  to  feel  the  importance  of  this  river, 
which  is  the  ^reat  natural  outlet,  and  must  become  a 
main  commercial  outlet  for  the  growing  productions 
of  the  new  North-Western  States.     The  Erie  Canal  is 
already  far  too  limited  for  the  traffic  which  at  present 
comes  to   it,   and  the  St  Lawrence  presents  facilities 
which  the  canal  does  not  possess ;  and  of  these  facilities 
numerous  parties  in  the  States  are  already  beginning 
to    avail    themselves.      Instead  of   making  sacrifices, 
therefore,  with  the  view  of  obtaining  a  reciprocity,  the 
benefits  of  which  would  be  at  least  as  great  to  New 
England  as  they  would  be  to  Canada,  let  the  Canadian 
wheat  and  flour  be  sent  direct  to  Liverpool  j  and  in  this 
way  the  Canadian  merchant  and  miller  may  put  in  their 
pockets  the  duties  and  profits  they  are  now  made  to  pay 
to  other  parties  as  they  pass  through  the  cities  of  Roches- 
ter and  New  York  to  the  same  final  destination. 

This  great  canal,  the  sole  main  artery  along  which — 
until  the  railway  from  Albany  to  Buffalo  was  formed — the 
traffic  of  the  west  and  of  the  upper  lakes  found  its  way 
to  the  Atlantic,  is  not  only  very  creditable  to  the  enter- 
prise and  foresight  of  the  people  of  New  York  State,  but 
has  been  a  source  of  great  wealth  to  them.  It  has  also 
proved  the  means  of  developing,  in  a  most  rapid  manner, 
the  natural  resources  of  the  State,  and  of,  creating  an 
extent  of  commercial  and  manufacturing  industry  which, 
without  such  a  means  of  easy,  lengthened,  and  econo- 
mical transit,  it  might  have  taken  centuries  to  establish. 
This  canal  connects  the  navigable  waters  of  the  Hudson, 
at  Albany  and  Troy,  with  the  north-eastern  part  of  Lake 
Erie  at  Buffalo.  It  has  a  length  between  these  extremes 
of  363  miles,  and  it  is  joined  in  its  way  by  branches, 
which  with  their  feeders  are  273  miles  in  length.    There 


214 


TRAFFIC  ON  THE  ERIE  CANAL. 


is,  besides,  the  Lake  Champlain  Canal  of  79  miles,  by 
which  the  navigation  of  the  lake  is  connected  with  that 
of  the  river  Hudson,  making  in  all  714  miles  of  canal 
navigation,  and  necessary  feeders,  executed  and  upheld 
by  the  State.  In  executing  this  work,  a  large  outlay 
was  for  many  years  incurred,  and  its  projectors  had  much 
opposition  to  encounter,  and  many  struggles  with  the 
purse-holders  of  the  State,  before  it  could  be  brought  into 
a  navigable  condition.  Now  it  is  a  source  of  large  direct 
money-revenue  to  the  State,  in  addition  to  the  numerous 
indirect  benefits  which  it  otherwise  confers.  The  total 
number  of  tons  of  goods  of  all  sorts  conveyed  along  it,  in 
1849,  was  2,894,732,  and  their  estimated  value  about 
145,000,000  of  dollars.  The  main  transit  of  produce  is 
from  west  to  east,  as  we  should  naturally  suppose.  Thus, 
in  1849,  t^e  tons  of  wheat  and  flour  conveyed  eastward 
to  the  Hudson  were  434,444,  while  there  were  conveyed 
westward  to  Buffalo,  on  the  way  to  other  States,  only 
67,966  tons  of  the  same  articles.  Of  the  whole  traffic, 
also,  of  all  kinds,  1,266,000  tons  came  eastward  to  the 
Hudson,  while  only  315,000  tons  went  westward.  The 
toll  varies  from  1  to  5  mills  (thousandths  of  a  dollar)  for 
1000  lbs.  per  mile,  and  the  revenue  in  1849  amounted  to 
3,250,000  of  dollars,  of  which  2^  millions  remained  as  a 
clear  surplus,  after  paying  all  necessary  expenses  of 
collection  and  repairs. 

The  importance  of  this  canal  to  the  Western  States 
appears  from  the  fact,  that  of  the  whole  traffic  from  the 
west,  (1,226,000  tons)  which  arrived  at  the  Hudson, 
768,000  tons  had  come  direct  from  the  Western  States. 
Besides,  it  is  one  of  the  great  thoroughfares  to  the 
western  territory  for  the  poorer  classes  of  emigrants  from 
Europe.  For  the  emigrants  who  arrive  at  New  York 
there  is  a  choice  of  two  routes  to  the  west — one  by 
Philadelphia  and  Pittsburg,  the  other  by  Albany  and 
Buffalo.     The  latter  is  the  cheaper,  the  easier,  and  the 


EMIGRANTS  TO  NEW  YORK. 


215 


in 


more  direct,  and,  since  the  formation  of  the  railway,  is 
also  much  the  quicker  route. 

The  number  of  emigrants  who  landed  at  New  York  in 
the  years  1848  and  1849  respectively,  were 


In  1848, 

189,176 

In  1849, 

220,603 

f  these  there  were  from 

1848. 

1849. 

Ireland, 

98,061 

112,591 

England, 

23,062 

28,321 

Scotland, 

6,415 

8,840 

Wales,      .... 

1,054 

1,782 

Total  from  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland, 

i  128,692 

151,534 

Germany, 

61,973 

55,705 

Holland,  Norway,  and  Sweden,    2,932 

6,754 

France,     .... 

2,734 

2,683 

A  very  large  majority  of  the  European  population, 
which  is  flowing  to  the  TTnited  States,  comes,  therefore, 
from  the  United  Kingdom.  Germany  sends  out  more 
than  any  other  country  of  continental  Europe.  In  con- 
sidering the  effect  of  the  vast  numbers  of  Irish  emi- 
grants upon  the  population  of  North  America,  it  is  of 
consequence  to  notice  that  of  the  Teutonic  races,  includ- 
ing the  English,  German,  Scotch,  Dutch,  and  Scandi- 
navian :  there  are  almost  as  many  as  there  are  of  the 
Celts.  The  Irish  emigrants,  also,  are  by  no  means  all 
of  pure  Celtic  blood.  As  a  whole,  therefore,  these  emi- 
grants would  produce  a  valuable  mixed  population  were 
they  to  be  settled  indiscriminately,  and  intermingled  by 
marriage  in  succeeding  generations  This,  however,  is 
to  a  certain  extent  prevented,  by  the  natural  tendency 
of  people  of  the  same  country  to  flock  together,  and  to 
settle  near  each  other.  Thus,  as  the  French  prepon- 
derate in  Lower  Canada  and  Louisiana,  the  Germans  in 
Pennsylvania  and  parts  of  Ohio,  the  Dutch  in  some 


216 


ISOLATION  OP  RACES. 


II  i 


places  upon  the  Hudson  Eiver,  &c.,  so  the  Irish  and  the 
Highland  Scotch,  and  even  the  Norwegians,  establish 
themselves  in  separate  localities,  and  give  a  tone  to  the 
manners,  feelings,  and  habits,  and  new  words  and 
accents  to  the  language  of  the  townships,  counties,  or 
states,  in  which  they  choose  their  homes.  This  will, 
no  doubt,  be  found  to  give  peculiarities  to  the  popula- 
tion of  the  several  States,  and  to  modify  the  temper, 
and  even  the  legislation,  of  the  Houses  of  Assembly  in 
each  State.  But  these  State  differences  will  disappear 
in  the  Federal  Congress,  and  will  rarely  affect  the  action 
or  procedure  of  the  Central  Government.  The  greater 
fire  and  impatience  of  one  State  will  be  restrained  by 
the  coolness  and  caution  of  another ;  and  thus,  while  the 
warm  temperaments  of  some  of  the  States  may  prevent 
national ,  stagnation,  they  will,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  but 
seldom  prevail  to  hurry  forward  the  whole  Union  to 
hasty  and  inconsiderate  measures. 

In  regard  to  the  new  States  which  are  springing  up 
towards  the  west  and  north,  it  is  very  interesting  to 
observe  how  important  an  influence  is  exercised  by  the 
restless  New  Englanders  upon  the  establishment  among 
them  of  political,  religious,  and  educational  institutions, 
and  upon  the  general  character  and  expression  of  public 
feeling  and  sentiment. 

The  emigrants  who  go  out  from  Europe — the  raw 
bricks  for  the  new  State  buildings — are  generally  poor, 
and  for  the  most  part  indifferently  educated.  Being 
strangers  to  the  institutions  of  the  country,  and  to  their 
mode  of  working,  and,  above  all,  being  occupied  in 
establishing  themselves,  the  rural  settlers  have  little 
leisure  or  inclination  to  meddle  with  the  direct  regulation 
of  public  affairs  for  some  years  after  they  have  first 
begun  to  hew  th  nr  farms  out  of  the  solitary  wilderness. 
The  New  Englanders  come  in  to  do  this.  The  west  is 
an  outlet  for  their  superfluous  lawyers,  their  doctors, 


INFLUENCE  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


217 


their  ministers  of  various  persuasions,  their  newspaper 
editors,  their  bankers,  their  merchants,  and  their  pedlars. 
All  the  professions  and  influential  positions  are  filled  up 
by  them.  They  are  the  movers  in  all  the  public  mea- 
sures that  are  taken  in  the  organisation  of  State  govern- 
ments, and  the  establishment  of  county  institutions; 
and  they  occupy  most  of  the  legislative,  executive,  and 
other  official  situations,  by  means  of  which  the  State 
affairs  are  at  first  carried  on.  Thus  the  west  presents 
an  inviting  field  to  the  ambitious  spirits  of  the  east; 
and  through  their  means  the  genius  and  institutions  of 
the  New  England  States  are  transplanted  and  diffused, 
and  determine,  in  a  great  measure,  those  of  the  more 
westerly  portions  of  the  Union. 

Near  Rochester  we  passed  one  of  the  emigrant  trains 
which  every  day  proceed  from  Albany  and  Troy  to 
Buffalo,  on  their  way  to  the  Far  West.  There  were 
women  and  children  and  men  of  all  ages,  and  the  ragged 
and  lively,  though  often  squalid-looking  Irish,  were 
mixed  up  with  the  more  decently  clad  and  graver-looking 
English,  Scotch,  and  Germans.  The  fare  from  New 
York  to  Albany  by  water,  and  thence  to  Buffalo  by 
railway,  is  five  dollars  a-head,  though  the  poor  strangers 
are  liable  to  much  imposition  in  New  York  on  the  part 
of  a  set  of  men  called  runners^  who  waylay  them  on 
landing,  and  profess  to  give  them  information,  with  the 
view  only  of  cheating  them  of  their  money.  Much  pains 
has  been  taken,  however,  by  the  State  Emigration  Com- 
missioners in  New  York,  with  the  view  of  preventing 
such  imposition.  It  is  made  unlawful  for  a  tavern  or 
lodging-house  keeper  to  detain  the  luggage  of  an  emigrant 
for  any  debts  he  may  contract ;  persons  are  appointed 
to  give  information  to  those  who  land;  and  were  ordinary 
prudence  to  be  exercised  by  European  emigrants,  very 
much  less  opportunity  for  fraud  would  be  afibrded  to  the 
swarms  of  heartless  wretches  who,  in  proportion  to  the 


ii 


218 


OLD  HUNKERS  AND  BARNBURNERS. 


population,  are  probably  as  numerous  at  least  in  New 
York  as  in  any  European  city. 

Though  most  of  my  fellow-passengers  were  on  their 
way  from  the  fair  at  Syracuse,  the  conversation  in  the 
cars  was  more  about  political  diiferences,  conventions, 
and  discussions,  than  about  the  proceedings  of  the  show. 
The   Old  Hunkers  and  the  Barnburners — two  sections 
of  the  democratic  party — were  holding  many  meetings 
throughout  the  country,  with  the  view  of  bringing  about 
a  union,  as  their  differences  had  been  a  source  of  great 
advantage  to  the  Whigs  at  the  recent  federal  and  state 
elections.     In  England,  to  be  a  democrat  still  implies  a 
position  at  the  very  front  of  the  movement  party,  and  a 
desire  to  hasten  forward  political  changes,  irrespective  of 
season  or  expediency.    But  among  the  American  demo- 
crats there  is  a  Conservative  and  a  Eadical  party.    The 
former,  who  desire  to  restrain  "  the  amazing  violence  of 
the  popular  spirit,"  are  nick-named  by  their  democratic 
adversaries  the  "  Old  Hunkers ; "  the  latter,  who  pro- 
fess to  have  in  their  hearts  "  sworn  eternal  hostility 
against  every  form  of  tyranny  over  the  mind  of  man," 
are  stigmatised  as  Barnburners^  but  call  themselves  the 
"    Young  Democracy^''    or  the    "  Progressive  Young 
Democracy."    The  New  Yorh  Tribune^  in  reference  to 
the  origin  of  the  names  themselves,  says  that  the  name 
Hunkers  "  was  intended  to  indicate  that  those  on  whom 
it  was  conferred  had  an  appetite  for  a  large  hunk*  of 
the  '  spoils,'  though  we  never  could  discover  that  they 
were  peculiar  in  that.    On  the  other  hand,  the  Barn- 
burners were  so  named,  in  allusion  to  the  story  of  an  old 
Dutchman  who  relieved  himself  of  rats  by  burning  his 
barns  which  they  infested,  just  like  exterminating  all 
banks  and  corporations,  to  root  out  the  abuses  connected 
therewith."    It  is  alleged  against  the  Barnburners,  that 

*  Hunk  or  hunch  is  a  large  slice  or  piece — as,  a  hunk  of  bread  and 
cheese. 


PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  DEMOCRATIC  PARTY. 


219 


their  recent  conduct  in  reference  to  the  slavery  question, 
as  the  supporters  of  General  Cass,  the  pro-slavery  can- 
didate, is  sadly  inconsistent  with  their  affected  hostility 
to  every  form  of  tyranny.  But  where  men  go  for  the 
predominance  of  a  party,  small  considerations  regarding 
consistency  will  not  readily  restrain  them. 

But  if  the  principles  of  this  extreme  section  of  the 
democratic  party  in  the  United  States  be  such  as  their 
own  organs  (the  Ohio  Union,  for  example,)  represent 
them,  they  can  scarcely  be  charged  with  inconsistency 
in  this,  or  almost  any  other  case.  "  They  believe  that 
the  democratic  impulses  are  right,  and  should  be  obeyed, 
not  thwarted  :  they  believe  in  and  favour  progress,  and 
would  not  prescribe  a  fixed  rule  in  all  minor  matters  for 
all  time,  but  would  adapt  action  to  the  circumstances 
and  exigencies  which  arise  in  the  progression  of  events, 
and  to  the  rights  and  interests  which  accompany  or 
result  from  that  progression  and  its  changes."  This  is 
virtually  surrendering  principle  to  impulse,  and  giving 
the  reins  into  the  hands  of  a  constantly  shifting  expe- 
diency. If  they  find  it  expedient,  for  party  purposes,  to 
oppose  the  extension  of  slavery  to-day,  therefore,  it 
will  not,  with  these  professions,  be  inconsistent  to  pro- 
nounce it  expedient  to  favour  that  extension  to-morrow. 

Proceeding  from  Kochester  to  Attica,  a  distance  of 
forty-four  miles,  in  a  south-west  direction,  we  again 
crossed  the  several  geological  formations  I  have  already 
described,  and  saw  much  strong  wheat-land.  Here  and 
there  considerable  patches  of  forest  remained,'  and  some- 
times fields  with  the  stumps  standing ;  and  occasionally 
my  memory  was  refreshed  by  a  more  or  less  extensive 
burning  of  the  stumps,  reminding  me  of  what  I  had 
seen  so  frequently,  and  on  so  large  a  scale,  in  the  forests 
of  New  Brunswick.  Thirty  miles  more  brought  me  to 
Buffalo;  and  upon  this  tract  the  native  forest,  still 
untouched,  and  the  log  cabin,  and  the  half-cleared  land. 


I* 


220 


EVIL   EFFECTS  OF  LAND-JOBBING. 


and  the  blackened  stumps,  and  the  occasional  fellings 
and  burnings,  told  of  our  approach  to  the  limits  of  com- 
plete settlement — to  the  wilderness  lands,  over  which  the 
living  tide  of  redundant  European  energy  is  so  rapidly 
diffusing  itself. 

Along  the  line  of  this  great  thoroughfare  in  the  State 
of  New  York,  comparatively  few  emigrants  now  linger. 
Farmers,  with  capital  to  stock  a  good  farm  at  home, 
occasionally  find  eligible  farms  to  buy,  upon  which  they 
can  comfortably  settle,  and  bring  up  their  families  with- 
out fear  of  rent-days  or  shifting  corn-laws.  But  the 
mass  of  movers,  who  are  men  of  comparatively  small 
means,  pass  on  without  inquiring  whether  or  not  the 
State  of  New  York  has  still  any  suitable  land  to  sell. 

It  may  at  first  sight  be  considered  as  a  remarkable 
circumstance,  indeed,  that,  in  a  country  so  large  and  so 
new  as  the  State  of  New  York,  containing  46,200 
square  miles,  only  350,000  acres  were  public  property 
at  the  beginning  of  1849.  Of  these  only  25,000  be- 
longed to  the  State,  11,000  to  the  Literature  Fund,  and 
314,000  to  the  School  Fund.  But  a  little  inquiry  soon 
shows  that  when  pieople  are  flocking  in  from  foreign 
countries,  and  lands  are  for  sale  at  a  fixed  price,  land- 
speculators  will  spring  up,  in  whose  hands  large  tracts 
will  accumulate,  to  be  held  till  a  rise  in  price  enables  the 
first  purchasers  to  sell  with  a  profit.  It  is  by  land-job- 
bing, in  fact,  that  the  largest  fortunes  have  been  made 
in  most  of  the  States.  Though  this  land-jobbing  has 
made  it  the  interest  of  individuals  to  use  all  efforts  to 
turn  the  tide  of  emigration  in  particular  directions,  and 
has  thus  at  first  more  rapidly  increased  the  population 
of  the  new  States,  it  has  undoubtedly,  in  the  end,  the 
effect  of  retarding  the  settlement  of  a  country  and  the 
development  of  its  natural  resources;  and  it  is  one  of 
the  internal  evils  under  which  our  own  North  American 
colonies  are  now  to  a  considerable  extent  suffering. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 


land- 


City  of  Buffalo ;  cause  of  ita  rapid  rise. — Influence  of  the  growth  of 
the  Western  States  on  the  agriculture  of  western  New  York  and 
Upper  Canada. — Passage  from  Buffalo  to  Chicago  in  Illinois  and 
Millwaukie  in  Wisconsin. — Home  ideas  as  to  these  now  States. — 
Cheap  wheat  does  not  imply  rich  land. — Cliaracter  of  the  soils  in 
Michigan. — Average  produce  of  this  State,  and  of  its  several  counties. 
— Exaggerated  statements  of  the  producing  and  exporting  powers  of 
these  new  States. — Can  the  export  from  these  new  States  continue  1 
— Thin  sowing  of  buckwheat. — Quantity  of  seed-corn  per  acre  sowa 
for  the  different  kinds  of  grain  in  the  several  States  of  the  Union. — 
Copper  mines  of  Lake  Superior. — Immense  masses  of  native  copper. 
— Extent  and  richness  of  the  deposits. — How  they  occur. — Ancient 
Indian  workings. — Amusing  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  mode  in 
which  the  copper  has  been  deposited. — State  of  Wisconsin. — Popular 
feeling  in  regard  to  the  several  new  States. — Quantity  of  public  land 
sold  in  each  in  1847.— Short  Michigan  fever  in  1836. — Minnesota, 
the  New  England  of  the  West. — Influence  of  these  new  States  on  the 
future  traffic  of  the  St  Lawrence.  —  Wondera  of  the  hog  crop  of 
Ohio. — Comparative  productiveness  of  the  Stotes  of  Ohio  and  New 
York. — Indian  com  the  staple  of  Ohio. — Outlet  for  this  crop  in 
raising  pork. — Hogs  killed  in  the  several  western  States. — How  they 
are  fed. — "Packing  business"  at  Cincinnati. — How  all  the  parts  of  the 
animals  are  disposed  of. — Lard  oil  exported  largely  to  France  to 
adulterate  olive  oil. — Amount  of  the  various  marketable  products  of 
this  business  at  Cincinnati.  —  Connection  of  rural  economy  and 
manufactures. 


> 


Buffalo,  now  a  city  of  upwards  of  40,000  inhabitants, 
contained  in  1830  only  8,653,  and  in  1813  was  a  small 
village,  which  in  that  year  was  destroyed  by  fire.  Its 
rise  has  been  rapid,  and  its  future  progress  is  likely  to  be 
great ;  but  both  are  easily  intelligible — unavoidable,  in 


PROGRESS  AND  TRAFFIC  OF  BUFFALO. 


fact,  in  the  nature  of  things.  Its  position  at  the 
, '  termination  of  the  Erie  Canal,  the  mi.nopoly  of  the 
carrying  trade  of  the  lakes,  and  the  rapid  peopling  of 
the  Far  West — these  are  the  sources  of  its  past  progress, 
and  must  be  the  causes  of  a  great  increase  still  to  its 
size,  wealth,  and  importance.  It  bears,  in  fact,  at  one 
end  of  the  inland  water  communication  of  the  State,  the 
same  relation  to  the  traffic  of  the  wide  north-western 
country  as  New  York  at  the  other  end  bears  to  the 
commerce  with  Europe. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  direct  and  immediate  effect 
which  the  peopling  of  a  new  country  has,  not  only  on 
the  rise  and  prosperity  of  particular  localities,  but  upon 
the  general  wealth,  economical  value,  and  forms  of 
husbandry  followed  in  countries  which  adjoin  it. 

Thus,  in  1838,  wheaten  flour  was  shipped  at 
Buffalo  for  the  west ;  and  the  wheat-region  of  New 
York,  with  that  of  Upper  Canada,  were  the  main  sources 
of  its  supply.  Now,  after  only  twelve  years,  an  enormous 
supply  of  wheat  and  flour  is  brought  from  the  west, 
along  Lake  Erie,  and  shipped  upon  the  Erie  Canal  for 
the  east,  at  Buffalo  and  the  adjoining  port  of  Blackrock. 
Thus,  of  wheat  and  flour  so  shipped,  independent  of 
what  might  be  arrested  by  the  way,  at  Rochester  and 
elsewhere,  there  arrived  at  the  Hudson  River,  in — 


1846, 
1847, 
1848, 
1849, 


264,000  tons. 
398,000   ... 
273,000   ... 
250,000   ... 


The  value  of  these  articles  at  Buffalo,  in  each  of  these 
last  two  years,  averaging  about  10,000,000  of  dollars. 

The  effect  of  these  large  arrivals  from  the  Western 
States — which  were  unnaturally  stimulated  during  the 
years  of  European  famine,  as  the  large  number  opposite 
the  year  1847  indicates — has  been  to  render  wheat  less 
valuable  in  western   New  York,  to   make  the  wheat 


HOME  OPINIONS  OP  THESE  NEW  STATES. 


223 


culture  less  remunerative,  and  to  turn  the  attention  of 
the  New  York  farmers  more  to  grazing  and  dairy 
husbandry,  fruit  culture,  and  other  branches  of  rural 
economy,  in  which  they  think  the  north-west  will  be 
unable  so  directly  to  compete  with  them. 

The  nearest  of  the  new  North-western  States  to  Buf- 
falo is  Michigan,  which  commences  at  the  other  end  of 
Lake  Erie.  On  the  arrival  of  the  trains  from  Albany, 
steamers,  during  the  summer  months,  are  in  waiting  to 
convey  emigrants  up  the  lake  without  delay.  At  the 
time  of  my  visit,  500  emigrants  a-day  were  said  to 
leave  the  Hudson  River,  and  make  their  way  by  rail  to 
Buffalo.  Along  the  lake  to  Detroit,  in  Michigan — 
about  250  miles — is,  by  the  quicker  boats,  17  hours; 
from  Detroit  af-^ss  the  south  end  of  Michigan,  by 
railway,  to  New  Buffalo,  11  hours ;  and  again,  by 
steamboat,  across  the  foot  of  Lake  Michigan,  to  Chicago 
in  Illinois,  is  4  hours ;  and  to  Millwaukie,  in  Wisconsin, 
about  6  hours  more ; — in  all,  about  32  hours  to  Chicago, 
(518  miles,)  and  42  to  Millwaukie. 

We  are  accustomed  to  attach  the  idea  of  great  natural 
productiveness,  and  of  boundless  tracts  of  rich  land,  to 
those  new  States  from  which  come  the  large  supplies  of 
wheat  that  are  annually  poured  into  the  port  of  Buffalo, 
and  which  vex  the  New  York  State  and  New  England 
farmery,  by  their  effect  upon  the  prices  of  the  staple 
article  of  vegetable  food.  But  a  closer  examination  of 
these  counties  undeceives  us  as  to  both  these  points. 
The  power  of  exporting  large  quantities  of  wheat  implies 
neither  great  natural  productiveness,  nor  permanently 
rich  land,  in  a  district  which,  from  a  state  of  nature,  is 
beginning  to  be  subjected  to  arable  culture. 

In  Michigan,  for  example,  the  geological  structure 
shows  that  a  very  large  portion  of  the  State  is  occupied 
by  rocks  which  belong  to  the  coal  measures,  and,  like 
the  similar  rocks  in  New  Brunswick,  yield  poor  soils. 


224 


SOILS  IN  MICHIGAN. 


r  \ 


Then  the  central  basin,  in  which  the  coal  is  found,  is 
encircled  by  a  broad  zone  of  those  older  rocks  of  which 
I  have  spoken  under  the  name  of  the  Portage  and 
Chemung  groups,  as  forming  the  upland  and  interior 
portions  of  western  New  York.  Among  these,  thick 
sandstone  rocks  occur,  which  give  sandy  and  stony  soils, 
and  dark-coloured  shaly  rocks,  poor  in  lime,  which  yield 
soils  on  which  an  inferior  forest  vegetation  naturally 
springs  up,  and  which,  under  the  influence  of  culture, 
yield  poorly  remunerating  returns. 

In  Michigan  generally,,  therefore,  the  soils  ought  to  be 
poor  —  the  main  exceptions  being  at  its  northern 
extremity,  towards  the  straits  of  Michilimackinac,  which 
connects  Lake  Huron  with  Lake  Michigan,  and  on  its 
south-eastern  extremity,  where  it  adjoins  the  river  and 
lake  of  1  St  Clair,  and  the  rich  lands  of  the  south- 
western limit  of  Upper  Canada — and  such,  I  believe,  is 
practically  found  to  be  the  case.  The  Michigan  Central- 
Eailroad  passes  over  much  poor  sandy  country.  And 
although  extensive  tracts  of  thin  poor  soil,  sparsely 
studded  with  open  forests  of  stunted  oak,  appear  to 
invite  the  settler  by  the  ease  with  which  they  can  be 
cleared,  and  the  first  crops  put  in,  yet  a  few  years'  trial 
warns  him,  at  the  first  favourable  opportunity,  to  shift 
his  location, — sell  it,  if  he  can,  to  a  new-comer — and 
to  seek  out  for  a  permanent  resting-place  in  a  more 
naturally  favoured  district, 

And  yet,  such  a  country  as  I  have  described — like 
the  interior  uplands  of  western  New  York — will  give 
excellent  first  crops,  even  of  wheat,  and  will  supply,  to 
those  who  skim  the  first  cream  off  the  country,  a  large 
surplus  of  this  grain  to  send  to  market. 

The  correctness  of  these  remarks  is  proved  by  a 
comparison  of  the  actual  average  produce  of  the  land  in 
this  new  State  of  Michigan,  with  the  quantity  of  wheat 
and  fiour  it  has  of  late  years  been  able  to  export.    Thus 


COUNTY  AVERAGES  IN   MICHIGAN. 


more 

1— like 
|ll  give 

pply,  to 
|a  large 

by  a 
land  in 
wheat 
Thus 


— according  to  the  Statistical  Returns  for  1848,  published 
by  order  of  the  State  legislature  in  1849,  and  for  a 
copy  of  which  I  have  to  express  my  obligations  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  State  Agricultural  Society,  Mr  Holmes 
— it  appears  that,  in  1848,  the  number  of 

Acres  sown  to  wheat,  was  .  465,900 

Of  bushels  produced,  was  .  4,739,300 

And  the  average,  per  imperial  acre,  10 j  bushels; 

or  less  than  9  bushels,  if  seed-corn  be  deducted. 

And  that  this  average  is  not  derived  from  the 
combinations  of  extreme  numbers,  given  by  very  poor 
and  very  rich  land,  appears  from  the  fact,  that,  of  thq 
twenty-nine  counties  of  which  the  separate  averages  are 
deducible  from  the  published  returns — 


2 

Counties 

gh.- 

•i\  ^rage  of     . 

Bushels  per  acre. 

7 

3 

8 

2 

••*                   < 

9 

7 

•  •  • 

10 

6 

••• 

11 

3 

••• 

12 

4 

f  •  t 

13 

1 

•  •  • 

16 

1 

••  • 

18 

These  last  2  counties  being  Macomb  and  St  Clair, 
situated  on  the  fertile  south-east  portion  of  the  State,  to 
which  1  have  already  referred. 

Alid  yet  th^  quantity  of  wheat  and  flour  exported 
from  this  State  is  comparatively  large — though  I  have 
access  to  no  trustworthy  data  from  which  the  absolute 
quantity  can  be  estimated.*    Were  we  to  allow  to  each 

*  I  may  give,  as  an  illustration  of  the  very  loose,  and  often 
exaggerated  statements  which  are  put  forth  regarding  these  new 
States,  what  has  been  published  by  authority  in  regard  to  Michigan. 
In  the  Patent  Ofi&ce  Report  for  1847,  p.  .547,  a  table  is  given, 
representing  the  estimated  population,  produce  in  wheat,  homo 
consumption  of  this  grain,  and  surplus  for  export  in  each  State  of  the 
Union  in  that  year.  In  this  table  the  population  of  Michigan  is  taken 
VOL.    I.  P 


EXPORTING  POWER  OF  MICHIGAN. 

of  its  400,000  inhabitants  8  bushels  of  wheat,  as  Indian 
corn  enters  there  less  into  the  consumption  of  the 
people,  there  would  remain  a  surplus  for  exportation  of 
1,500,000  bushels.  Even  this  is  a  large  export  for  so 
young  a  State,  and  naturally  leads  a  foreigner  to  the 
idea  that  the  country  must  be  very  fertile  to  raise  so 
large  a  surplus  with  so  small  a  population.  But  the 
real  reason  for  this  surplus  is,  that  nearly  the  whole 
population  is  employed  in  agricultural  pursuits,  and  that 
wheat  is  the  only  grain  they  produce  for  which  a  ready 
market  can  be  found,  and  which  can  be  easily  exchanged 
for  the  manufactured  goods,  and  West  or  East  India 
produce,  which  are  necessary  to  their  comfort. 

A  question  of  great  importance  to  the  British  and 
New  England  wheat-growers  here  suggests  itself — Will 
the  large '  export  of  wheat  from  these  new  States  con- 
tinue to  increase,  or  are  there  any  reasons  why  it  should 
by-and-by  begin  to  decrease?  So  far  as  I  have  been 
able  10  collect  information  bearing  upon  this  question,  I 
am  decidedly  of  opinion  that,  though  the  quantity  of 

at  378,000,  the  produce  of  wheat  at  8,000,000  of  bushels  !  the 
consumption  at  3  bushels  per  head!  and  the  surplus  of  6,890,000 
bushels  given  as  remaining  for  exportation,  making  Michigan,  after 
Ohio,  Virginia,  and  Pennsylvania,  the  largest  wheat-exporting  State  in 
the  Union.  Again,  in  the  same  Patent  Office  Report  for  1848,  p.  647, 
the  population  is  estimated  at  400,000,  the  consumption  at  8  bushels 
per  head,  and  yet  a  surplus  of  four  millions  of  bushels  is  supposed  to 
remain  for  exportation.  But  in  opposition  to  these  calculations  are 
the  numbers  obtained  by  actual  inquiry  in  1848,  and  published  by 
order  of  the  Michigan  legislature  in  1849,  which  show  the  entire 
produce  of  wheat  in  the  State,  in  1848,  to  have  been  only  4,739,300 
bushels. 

For  such  inaccuracies,  of  course,  the  compilers  of  the  Reports 
published  at  Washington  are  probably  not  deserving  of  blame,  so  much 
as  their  State  correspondents,  who  have  a  tendency,  each  of  them,  to 
magnify  and  exaggerate  the  produce  and  fertility  of  his  own  new 
region,  for  the  purpose  of  drawing  more  men  and  more  capital  into  it. 
But  their  effect,  when  discovered,  is  to  lessen  our  faith  very  much  in 
tlie  other  important  data  which  are  contained  in  these  very  valuable 
reports,  otherwise  so  creditable  to  the  United  States. 


BOOS  AND   SWAMPS  IN   MICHIGAN. 


227 


s  !  the 
890,000 
,  after 
State  in 
p.  547, 
bushels 
jposed  to 
tions  are 
ished  by 
entire 
,739,300 

Reports 
so  much 
them,  to 
own  new 
il  into  it. 
much  in 
valuable 


wheat  and  flour  exported  from  these  north-western 
States  may  continue  to  increase  for  a  certain  limited 
number  of  years,  it  will  by-and-by  begin  to  diminish, 
and  will  finally  in  a  great  measure  cease.  The  reasons 
for  this  opinion  will  be  given  when  I  come  to  review  the 
agricultural  changes  which  the  last  twenty  years  have 
introduced  into  the  husbandry  of  Lower  Canada. 

I  may  however,  as  a  special  fact  affecting  the  capabi- 
lities of  Michigan,  here  mention,  that  the  long  peninsular 
character  of  this  State,  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  water, 
mollifies  much  and  equalises  its  climate,  but  at  the  same 
time  makes  it  exceedingly  moist.  This,  with  the 
peculiar  impermeable  character  of  many  of  its  rocks, 
cover  large  portions  of  surface  —  as  is  the  case  in  parts 
of  New  Brunswick — with  bogs  and  swamps.  The  whole 
area  of  the  State  is  about  36,000,000  acres,  and  of 
these  4,500,000,  or  one-eighth  of  the  whole,  are  untill- 
able  swamps.  With  an  indifferent  soil,  and  a  humid 
climate,  this  vast  extent  of  constantly  cold  and  exhaling 
surface  must  co-operate  to  diminish  the  agricultural 
capabilities  of  the  State  as  a  whole. 

In  connection  with  the  growth  of  grain  in  these  new 
countries,  I  may  advert  to  a  circumstance  which  is 
closely  related  to  the  subject  of  a  discussion  which  has 
for  some  time  interested  the  agricultural  body  in  Great 
Britain — that  of  tliick  or  thin  sowing.  I  have  already 
alluded,  in  the  case  of  buckwheat,  to  the  very  small 
quantity  of  seed — one-half  to  one  bushel  an  acre — which 
is  found  sufficient  to  secure  a  good  crop  of  tin's  grain  in 
New  Brunswick.  In  the  State  of  Vermont,  from  a 
quarter  to  a  half  bushel  is  the  usual  quantity  of  seed 
sown  for  this  crop  ;  and  in  Tennessee  one  bushel. 

I  was  at  first  inclined  to  attribute  the  success  of  these 
small  quantities  of  seed,  in  th )  case  of  buckwheat,  to 
the  protection  against  the  attacks  of  insects  which  this 
seed  derives  from  the  hard  triangular  shell  with  which 


228 


QUANTITY  OP  SEED-CORN  SOWN  -r 


K 


it  is  covered ;  and  this  may  possibly  have  some  Influence 
in  securing  the  growth  of  a  larger  proportion  of  the 
seeds  sown,  than  in  the  case  of  less  securely  protected 
kinds  of  grain.  But  on  comparing  together  the  practice 
of  different  portions  of  the  United  States,  in  reference 
to  the  quantity  of  seed-corn  of  various  kinds  sown  to 
the  acre,  we  are  compelled,  I  think,  to  allow  to  other 
causes  a  very  material  influence  in  determining  how 
much  or  how  little  it  will  be  safest  for  the  farmer  to 
sow.  Thus  of  wheat,  barley,  oats,  rye,  rice,  and  pota- 
toes, the  quantity  of  seed  put  in  per  imperial  acre,  in 
the  different  States,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascer- 
tain, is  as  follows : — 


WHEAT. 


Georgia, 

Alabama, 

Michigan, 


Tennessee, 

Michigan, 

Maine, 


Biialiels. 

|tol 


H 


H 


Texas, 
Illinois, 
New  York, 


Bushels. 


I 


1    toll 
li...2 


Bushels. 
I 

11  to  2 
2 


BARLEY. 


Bushels. 

New  York,  2    to  3 

New  Hampshire,  21  ...  4 


OATS. 


Bushels. 

Alabama,  |  to  1 

South  Carolina,         1 
Georgia,    .        1   . 
New  York,        ll...  3 


U 


Bushels. 

Michigan,  2  to  3 

Vermont,    .  3 

Iowa,  .         2 ...  4 

New  Hampshire,  3  ...  4 


Of  these  three  kinds  of  grain,  it  seems  to  be  generally 
true  that  the  newer  States  sow  less  seed  than  the  older, 
and  the  more  southerly  than  those  which  lie  more 
towards  the  north  and  the  east.  As  Alabama  and 
Texas  are  chalk  countries,  the  quantity  of  calcareous 
matter  in  the  soils  may  have  an  influence  in  diminishing 
the  quantity  of  seed-wheat  required. 


IN  THE   DIFFERENT  STATES. 


229 


RYE. 


Alabama  and  ) 
Mississippi,     j 
Georgia, 
Suutli  Carolina, 


Bushels. 


New  Jersey  and  1 

Tennessee  J 

Michigan, 

New  Hampshire, 

Iowa,    . 

Illinois, 


Georgia  and  1 
Tennessee,     J 
Mississippi, 
New  Jersey, 


Bushels 
3    to  5 


POTATOES. 


Maine,  Connecticut,  ) 
and  Maryland,       J 
4     New  York  and  Ohio, 
2^  ...  10     New  Hampshire,  Ver- 


I 


mont,  and  Massachusetts,  J 


Bushels. 
1 

H 

1  to2 
2 

-2  to  2^ 

Bushels. 

8  to  20 
10... 20 


Of  these  crops,  also,  the  quantity  of  seed  increases  as 
we  come  north. 

Of  rice,  half  a  bushel  is  sown  in  Alabama,  and  two 
bushels  in  Tennessee ;  but,  in  the  case  of  rice  and  rye, 
so  much  depends  upon  small  differences  in  the  soil,  and 
in  the  case  of  potatoes  upon  the  variety  planted,  that 
safe  conclusions  cannot  be  drawn  from  varying  practice, 
as  to  these  crops. 

It  is  not  surprising,  though  it  is  economically  of  much 
importance,  that  a  still  less  proportion  of  seed  should 
be  used  in  planting  Indian  corn  generally,  than  is  found 
necessary  even  for  buckwheat.  Thus  the  quantities 
usually  put  in,  are,  in — 


Bushel. 


South  Carolina, 
Michigan  and  Georgia, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsyl-  )  i 
vania,  and  Michigan,  J  " 


to 


To 
1 

8 

1 


New  Hampshire, 
New  York, 
Ohio, 


Bushel, 
i. 

4 

3 

b 

8 


to 


The  differences  in  regard  to  this  grain  are  less  striking, 
because  it  is  dropped  or  dibbled  in  with  the  hand ;  and 
the  above  differences  in  the  quantity  used  depend  upon 
the  distances  at  which  the  hills  are  put,  and  the  number 
of  grains  dropped  into  a  hill — and  these,  again,  on  the 


230 


DEPOSITS  OF  NATIVE  COPPER 


height  to  which  the  variety  grows,  and  the  luxuriance 
which  the  soil  and  climate  usually  impart  to  it. 

It  is  a  striking  fact  that,  in  Alabama,  in  ordinary 
husbandry,  half  a  bushel  of  seed  is  by  very  many  per- 
sons found  sufficient  to  secure  a  good  crop  of  wheat. 
Considering  the  difference  of  climate,  however,  it  is 
perhaps  as  remarkable  that,  on  the  lov.r  flat  new  red- 
sandstone  country  of  north-western  Lancashire,  called 
the  Fylde^  where  the  weather  is  wet  and  uncertain  in 
the  autumn  and  winter,  less  than  a  bushel  of  seed  should 
by  many  persons  be  found  sufficient  for  their  winter 
wheat,  when  sown  early  in  October.* 

Of  the  economical  circumstances  connected  in  the 
public  mind  with  the  great  inland  lakes  of  North  Ame- 
rica, that  which,  next  to  the  agriculture  of  Michigan  and 
the  other  adjoining  States,  most  materially  affects  one  of 
our  important  home  interests,  is  the  existence  of  large 
deposits  of  native  copper  at  various  places  in  the  States 
of  Michigan  and  in  the  British  north-western  territory. 
These  deposits  were  known  to  the  native  inhabitants  of 
North  America,  probably  many  centuries  ago,  but  it  is 
only  about  ten  years  since  they  were  re-discovered,  and 
their  value  proved ;  and  only  four  or  five  since  the  metal 
from  them  has  been  extracted  and  brought  to  market, 

The  most  important  of  these  mineral  deposits  which 
have  yet  been  discovered  are  those  of  the  Upper  penin- 
sula of  Michigan,  which  separates  Lake  Michigan  from 
Lake  Superior.  The  mines  hitherto  opened  are  chiefly 
on  the  Kewenaw  peninsula,  which  juts  out  into  the 
middle  of  Lake  Superior,  and  to  the  south-west  of  this 
peninsula,  a  few  miles  up  the  Ontonagon  River,  which 
empties  into  Lake  Superior. 

The  remarkable  feature  in  these  mines  is  the  immense 
sheets,  or  walls,  of  native  or  metallic  copper  which  occur  in 


Royal  Agncultural  Journal,  vol.  x.  p.  2i. 


ON   LAKE  SUPERIOR. 


231 


the  veins.  It  was  these  masses  of  solid  copper  which  the 
native  North  Americans  were  in  the  habit  of  extracting. 
Their  workings  are  scattered  at  intervals  over  the  whole 
copper  region,  for  a  hundred  miles,  and  are  sunk  twelve 
or  fifteen  feet  deep.  Their  working  hammers  are  made 
of  a  hard  variety  of  trap — as  many  as  fifty  cartloads  of 
them  might  be  collected  at  the  Minnesota  mine,  near 
the  Ontonagon  Kiver  !  In  one  of  the  abandoned  pi*s  of 
this  mine,  at  the  depth  of  twelve  feet,  a  mass  of  native 
copper  weighing  above  five  tons  was  found,  which  had 
been  worked  round  on  all  sides,  cleared  from  the  rock, 
and  partly  raised,  by  the  ancient  native  miners,  and  is 
supposed  to  have  been  abandoned  because  of  its  great 
size.  Some  have  imagined  that  these  mining  operations 
must  have  been  conducted  by  a  former  race  of  inhabi- 
tants, possessed  of  more  skill  than  those  who  were  found 
in  the  country  on  the  arrival  of  the  Europeans.  That 
the  excavations  are  ancient  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  the 
workings  are  filled  up,  and  that  over  them  are  growing 
trees  which  are  upwards  of  a  hundred  years  old.  But 
Dr  Charles  Jackson  states  that,  with  the  hammer,  toma- 
hawks and  scalping-knives  have  been  found ;  and  he 
conjectures  that,  as  the  Indians  had  no  use  for  the  cop- 
per but  for  the  manufacture  of  implements,  they  had 
abandoned  the  mines  soon  after  1640,  when  the  early 
nassions  of  the  French  Jesuits  put  them  in  the  way  of 
procuring  implements  of  more  valuable  steel.  The 
succeeding  interval  of  two  hundred  years  would  account 
for  all  the  appearances  of  antiquity  which  have  as  yet 
been  observed. 

The  Kewenaw  Point  consists  of  a  series  of  parallel 
ridges  of  trap,  which  have  an  E.N.E.  direction.  The 
trap  contains  much  iron,  and,  where  it  comes  in  contact 
with  sandstone,  assumes  the  characters  of  an  amygda- 
loid. In  this  amygdaloid  the  veins  are  rich  in  metallic 
copper.     In  the  superincumbent  trap  they  are  pinched 


232 


VEINS  AT   KEWENAW  POINT. 


in  to  mere  films  of  metal  in  many  places ;  and  in  the 
sandstone  the  veins,  though  continuing  large,  are  filled 
withcalc — spar,  and  other  vein-stones — and  become  poor 
in  valuable  mineral  matter. 

The  veins  are  of  two  kinds — transverse,  which  cross 
the  trap  ridges  in  a  direction  which  is  N.  by  26°  to  30° 
W. ;  and  longitudinal,  which  run  parallel  to  the  ridges 
and  to  the  strike  of  the  red-sandstone  beds.  These 
longitudinal  veins,  as  well  as  the  cross  veins,  are  rich  in 
copper  in  the  amygdaloid  only ;  and  though  in  many 
places  thoy  have  the  appearance  of  beds,  they  are,  in 
the  opinion  of  Dr  Jackson,  probably  true  veins.  The 
most  successful  mine  as  yet  brought  into  operation  is  the 
Cliff  Mine,  in  a  cross  vein  on  Kewenaw  Point.  The 
vein-stone  is  prehnite,  and  the  vein  widens  and  becomes 
richer  in  >  copper  the  deeper  it  is  followed.  In  1848 
this  mine  shipped  and  sold  800  tons,  and  in  1849  about 
930  tons,  containing  an  average  of  60  per  cent  of  pure 
copper.  Next  to  it  is  the  Minnesota  Mine,  on  the  Onto- 
nagon River.  It  is  in  one  of  the  longitudinal  veins  or 
beds,  and  though  only  a  few  hundred  tons  of  metal  have 
yet  been  shipped,  the  mine  is  of  great  promise.  There 
are  many  others  in  progress,  from  which  large  supplies 
are  expected,  in  a  few  years,  to  be  obtained. 

The  only  form  in  which  the  mineral  has  yet  been 
extracted,  in  marketable  quantity,  is  in  that  of  metallic 
copper.  When  the  huge  masses  and  sheets  of  native 
metal  were  first  met  with  in  these  veins,  the  extraction 
of  them  was  found  so  difficult  that  it  was  doubted 
whether  it  would  be  possible  economically  to  remove 
them.  This  is  now  done  by  clearing  the  face  of  the 
metal,  and  cutting  it  out  with  cold-steel  chisels.  It 
occurs  in  more  or  less  extended  sheets,  standing  on 
edge,  and  following  the  lie  of  the  vein.  Several  of 
these  are  sometimes  arranged  side  by  side.  They  swell 
out  here  and  there  into  ellipsoidal  forms,  so  as  to  be  in 


HUGE  MASSES  OF  NATIVE  COPPER. 


233 


many 


one  place  only  6  inches,  while  in  another  they  are  5 
feet  in  thickness.  Dr  Jackson  states  that,  at  the  CUfF 
Mine,  "  one  mass  of  pure  copper  was  extracted,  when  he 
was  surveying  the  country,  which  weighed  80  tons ;  and 
other  masses,  probably  of  equal  magnitude,  were  in 
process  of  being  uncovered."  Mr  Trowbridge,  in  his 
later  Report  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  says  that,  "  in 
proceeding  along  the  fifth  level  of  the  same  mine,  he 
passed  a  mass  of  copper  125  feet  in  length,  and  varying 
from  1  to  2^  feet  in  thickness.  Its  depth  was  unknown. 
At  one  place  Captain  Jennings  (the  mine  captain)  said, 
*  Here  are  100  tons  of  pure  copper  in  sight.'  On  the 
second  level  we  passed  another  of  the  same  description, 
&c."  In  the  Minnesota  Mine,  Mr  Hodge  describes  a 
sheet  which  he  saw,  having  a  known  length  of  150  feet, 
a  height  of  8  feet,  and  a  thickness,  in  some  places,  of  5 
feet.  What  was  visible  in  the  overhanguig  wall  of  this 
drift  was  estimated  to  contain  250  tons  of  copper. 
The  poorer  part  of  the  vein  is  blasted  out,  brought 
to  the  surface,  heated  to  redness,  quenched  in  water, 
stamped,  and  then  waahed.  By  this  means  the  metal- 
lic copper  is  separated,  and  packed  in  barrels.  This 
and  the  chiselled  copper  are  the  only  forms  in  which 
the  products  of  the  mines  have  hitherto  been  sent  to 
market. 

The  copper  thus  obtained,  according  to  Dr  Jackson, 
who  first  drew  the  public  attention  to  the  value  of  these 
deposits  of  native  metal,  is  pure  metallic  copper,  as 
dense  as  the  densest  hammered  copper.  It  possesses 
the  remarkable  peculiarity  of  being  intermixed  with 
variable  quantities  of  metallic  silver,  not  diffused  uni- 
formly through  the  mass,  but  forming  distinct  crys- 
tals and  crystallised  masses,  scattered  through  the 
body  of  the  solid  copper.  I  saw  some  of  these  crystals 
in  specimens  possessed  by  Dr  Jackson,  and  he  stated  to 
me   that  some   masses  are  actually  porpliyritic^  with 


284 


PRODUCE  OF  THESE   MINES. 


nictnlllc  silver  scattered  through  them — witliout,  how- 
ever, forming  an  alloy  with,  or  rendering  impure,  the 
copper  itself. 

As  a  matter  of  economical  interest  to  the  copper 
miners  of  our  own  country,  I  may  remark  that,  in  all 
probability,  this  part  of  the  United  States  will,  in  ten 
years  more,  be  able  to  supply,  not  only  a  sufficient 
quantity  of  copper  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  Union, 
but  a  surplus  also  for  exportation.  The  quantity  of 
copper  hitherto  imported  into  the  United  States  has 
amounted  to  about  5400  tons  a-year.  The  Cliff  Mine 
alone,  in  1849,  has  shipped  what  is  equal  to  about  560 
tons  of  pure  copper.*  From  what  is  already  known  of 
this  copper  region,  it  is  fair,  I  think,  to  presume  that  in 
ten  years  this  quantity  will  be  increased  ten  times,  and 
that  the  lalce  region  may  be  seeking  foreign  markets  for 
its  surplus  copper,  as  the  upper  Mississippi  is  already 
doing  for  its  superabundant  lead. 

It  would  be  out  of  place  here  to  discuss  the  origin  of 
this  native  copper — the  probable  mode  in  which  it  has 
been  deposited  in  the  veins.  It  is  very  amusing,  however, 
to  observe  in  this,  as  in  so  many  other  cases,  how  men 
who  look  at  the  same  phenomena  from  different  points 
of  view  see  in  them  arguments  for  completely  opposite 
views.  Dr  Jackson  remarks,  that  the  metal  bears  the 
imprint  of  crystals  of  prehnite ;  that  perfect  crystals  of 
native  copper,  sometimes  half-a-pound  in  weight,  occur 
in  the  prehnite,  datholite,  calc,  spar,  and  quartz  which 
form  the  body  of  the  veins ;  and  that  the  melting-point 
of  silver,  which  is  mixed  in  crystals  and  large  lumps 
with  the  copper,  is  considerably  below  that  of  metallic 
copper ;  and  these  facts,  he  justly  adds,  are  objections  to 
the    igneous   origin   of  these  broad  sheets  of   native 

*  933  tons  containing  60  per  cent  of  copper.  The  quantity  of  pure 
copper  extracted  at  the  various  smelt-works  in  Groat  Britain  is  about 
25,000  tons,  one-half  of  which  is  from  Cornish  ores. 


STATE  OF  WISCONSIN. 


236 


metal.*  Professor  Agassiz,  again,  looking  at  the  mode 
in  which  the  mineral  deposits  occur  In  the  large,  thinks 
the  copper  all  plutonic — that  is,  thrown  up  in  a  melted 
state ;  remarks,  "  that  the  whole  phenomena  might  easily 
be  reproduced  artificially  on  a  small  scale;"  and  adds, 
"  it  appears  strange  to  me  that  so  many  doubts  can  still 
be  expressed  respecting  the  origin  of  the  copper  about 
Lake  Superior."  f  So  far  as  I  have  had  the  means  of 
forming  an  opinion  upon  the  chemistry  of  this  subject,  I 
am  certainly  inclined  to  diftcr  very  widely  from  the  two 
opinions  of  Professor  Agassiz  above  quoted — either  that 
the  phenomena  prove  the  copper  to  have  been  certainly 
injected  in  a  melted  state,  or  that  we  really  know 
how  to  reproduce  the  phenomena  on  a  small  scale  by 
art. 

West  of  Lake  Michigan  is  the  new  State  of  Wiscon- 
sin, numbering,  in  1848,  about  220,000  inhabitants. 
Its  principal  port,  on  the  south-western  part  of  the  lake, 
and  the  general  destination  of  emigrants  from  the  east, 
is  Milwaukie.  Fifteen  years  ago  Indian  skeletons,  in 
rude  coffins,  might  be  seen  suspended  under  the  trees 
where  this  town  of  16,000  inhabitants  now  stands. 

Each  of  the  new  States  has  its  turn  in  popular  favour, 
but  for  the  last  three  or  four  years  the  tide  of  emigra- 
tion has  been  setting  most  strongly  towards  these  North- 
Avestern  States,  and  especially  to  Wisconsin.  This 
appears  from  the  extent  of  the  public  lands  which  have 
been  sold  during  these  years  in  this,  compared  with 
the  otiier  States  of  the  Union.  Thus  the  Government 
Keturn  for  1847 — the  latest  to  which  I  have  accesp — 
gives  the  following  comparative  number  of  po'cs  as 
sold  in  the  several  States  during  that  yenv  :-- 

*  Proceedings  of  the  Amefincan  Atsociation  far  the  Adtancement  of 
Science,  18i9.—V.29i. 

t  Lake  Superior:  its  Physical  Character,  Vegetation,  and  Animah. 
—P.  4-27. 


if; 

m 


236 


LAND  SALES  IN  THE  SEVERAL  STATES. 


Ohio,  . 

Acres. 
105,234 

Indiana, 

230,627 

Illinois, 

506,802 

Missouri, 

246,415 

Alabama, 

146,859 

Mississippi, 

94,206 

Louisiana, 

90,694 

Michigan, 

62,338 

Arkansas, 

85,448 

Wisconsin, 

630,575 

Iowa, 

271,614 

Florida, 

27,339 

This  table  shows,  that  to  Wisconsin  the  rush  of  land- 
buyers  has  been  greater  lately  than  to  any  other  State, 
and  that  Illinois  alone  approaches  it  in  the  quantity  of 
public  land  disposed  of.  In  1836,  the  Michigan  fever 
was  the  variety  then  at  its  height.  In  that  year,  four 
millions  of  acres  of  the  public  lands  were  disposed  of  in 
that  State ;  but  1837  put  an  end  to  that  excitement,  and 
the  sales  have  since  been  comparatively  small. 

North-west  of  Wisconsin,  bounded  on  the  east  by 
Lake  Superior,  and  lying  opposite  the  copper  country 
of  Michigan,  is  the  territory — about  to  become  the  State 
— of  Minnesota.  This  district  is  called  by  some  the  New 
England  of  the  West.  It  is  in  a  colder  latitude  than 
any  of  the  older  States,  but  it  is  bounded  on  the  west 
by  the  Missouri,  and  is  traversed  for  900  miles  by  the 
Upper  Mississippi.  These  rivers,  with  their  many  tribu- 
taries, afford  abundant  facilities  for  inland  navigation. 
New  as  this  territory  is,  we  already  hear  of  its  agricul- 
tural societies,  its  cattle-shows,  and  its  lead-mines;  and 
steamers  ply  regularly  to  the  town  of  St  Paul,  the  seat 
of  government,  situated  immediately  below  the  Falls  of 
St  Anthony  on  the  Upper  Mississippi,*  and  219  miles 
within  the  borders  of  the  territory. 

Its  geology,  and  the  nature  of  its  soils,  have  not  as  yet 

*  Seymour's  Travels  in  Minnesota,  the  New  England  of  the  West. 


IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  ST  LAWRENCE. 


237 


been  fully  explored.  The  eastern  portion  of  its  surface 
appears,  however,  to  consistof  sandstones  and  magnesian 
limestones,  forming  sandy  soils  and  naked  prairies.  The 
western  part  is  an  extensive  chalk  formation,  forming 
prairies,  in  many  places  rich  in  pasture. 

In  connection  with  the  lake-traffic  which  will  neces- 
sarily arise  out  of  the  prosecution  of  the  copper-mines 
of  Michigan,  the  existence  and  rapid  growth  of  these 
new  States  ought  to  be  borne  in  mind.  Their  inter- 
course with  Europe  will  be  chiefly  through  the  lakes, 
the  Erie  Canal,  and  the  St  Lawrence.  The  Erie  Canal  is 
already  overloaded  with  traffic,  and  can  never  be  enlarged 
to  meet  half  the  growing  demands  upon  its  means  of 
transport.  The  St  Lawrence,  therefore,  must  become  a 
great  continental  thoroughfare,  a  source  of  great  wealth 
to  Canada  ;  and  if  the  Canadians  would  only  exercise  as 
much  reasonable  patience  in  the  development  of  their 
natural  resources  as  they  have  lately  shown  of  political 
rashness,  they  may  obtain  from  the  United  States  any 
proper  equivalent  for  a  right  of  way  through  their  canals 
and  private  waters. 

Of  all  the  wonders  in  rural  economy  with  which  this 
New  World  is  pregnant,  there  is  none  with  which  the 
traveller  becomes  acquainted,  in  these  lake-bounding 
States,  w^liich  is  more  wonderful  than  the  history  of  what 
is  called  the  hog-crop  of  Ohio.  This  State,  one  of  the 
most  prosperous  in  the  Union,  and  containing  now  a 
population  of  nearly  two  millions,  is  bounded  on  the 
north  by  Lake  Erie,  along  which  it  has  a  coast  line  of 
upwards  of  200  miles.  Though  this  State  possesses 
much  wheat-land,  and  raises  in  some  places  large 
breadths  of  this  grain,  yet  both  its  soil  and  its  climate 
adapt  it  more  generally  to  the  growth  of  Indian  corn. 
This  latter  grain,  therefore,  may  be  considered  the  staple 
of  the  State.  The  general  fertility  of  the  land,  in  com- 
parison with  that  of  the  States  of  New  York  and  Michi- 


238 


AVERAGE  PRODUCE  OF  OHIO. 


gan — as  they  are  at  present  cultivated — and  the  com- 
parative productiveness  of  each  crop  in  these  States,  will 
be  seen  by  the  following  table,  representing  the  average 
yield  in  each  per  imperial  acre : — 


Ohio. 

New  York, 

Michigan. 

Wheat, 

16i  bush. 

14  bush. 

lOJ  bush 

Barley, 

24      ... 

16    ... 

Oats, 

33f     ... 

26     ... 

Buckwheat, 

20i     ... 

14     ... 

Indian  corn, 

411     ... 

25     ... 

Potatoes, 

69      ... 

90     ... 

In  wheat  it  does  not  much  exceed  the  State  of  New 
York,  but  it  greatly  surpasses  it  in  the  produce  of 
Indian  corn;  while,  from  possessing  a  drier  summer 
climate,  it  is  inferior  in  the  growth  of  potatoes. 

Thus  rich  in  Indian  corn,  an  early  question  with  the 
farmer  was,  how  to  dispose  of  his  surplus  growth.  Until 
the  famine  years  of  1847  and  1848,  the  quantity  of  this 
grain  which  was  exported  from  the  whole  United  States 
was  exceedingly  small.  From  1820  to  1845,  it  averaged 
only  about  60,000  quarters  (half  a  million  of  bushels) 
a-year ;  but  from  100,000  quarters  in  1845,  it  rose  to 
230,000  in  1846,  and  to  2,125,000  quarters  in  1847, 
after  which  it  fell  to  half  a  million  in  1848,  and  has 
since  continued  to  decline. 

A  home  outlet,  therefore,  was  sought  for,  and  the 
distilling  of  whisky  and  the  fattening  of  hogs  are  the 
means  of  consumption  which  have  been  found  most  easily 
available,  and  most  generally  profitable.  The  extent  to 
which  the  packing  business,  as  the  latter  is  called,  is 
carried  on,  and  the  States  in  which  the  two  conditions 
— the  faculty  of  growing  Indian  corn  and  of  producing 
abundant  acorns — coexist  most  extensively,  will  be  seen 
by  the  following  table,  which  represents  the  number  of 
hogs  killed  in  each  of  the  packing  States  of  the  west  in 
1846  :— 


PACKING  BUSINESS  OF  OHIO. 


289 


Missouri, 

70,698 

Tennessee, 

42,975 

Kentucky, 

215,125 

Illinois, 

68,120 

Indiana, 

251,236 

Ohio,     . 

420,83.3 

Other  places. 

18,675 

Total  hogs  killed, 

1,087,862 

The  bogs  are  allowed  to  run  in  the  woods,  and  feed  on 
the  acorns,  &c.,  till  five  or  six  weeks  before  killing-time, 
{8th  or  lOtb  November,)  and  are  then  turned  into  the 
Indian -corn  fields,  to  fatten  them  and  harden  their  flesh. 
They  are  usually  from  eleven  to  eighteen  months  old 
when  they  are  killed ;  and  the  longer  they  have  been  in 
the  corn-fields,  the  better  is  the  pork. 

The  packing  business  of  Ohio  has  been  gradually  con- 
centrating itself  in  Cincinnati,  where,  in  the  winter  of 
1847  and  1848,  about  420,000  hogs  were  sold,  killed, 
and  packed.  The  blood  is  collected  in  tanks,  and  with 
the  hair,  hoofs,  and  other  offal,  is  sold  to  the  prussiate 
of  potash  manufactories.  The  carcass  is  cured  either 
into  barrelled  pork  or  into  bacon  and  hams,  and  the 
grease  rendered  into  lard  of  various  qualities.  Some 
establishments  cure  the  hams,  and  after  cutting  up  the 
rest  of  the  carcass,  steam  it  in  large  vats,  under  a  pres- 
sure, of  seventy  pounds  to  the  square  inch,  and  thus 
reduce  the  whole  to  a  pulp,  bones  and  all,  and  draw  off 
the  fat.  The  residue  is  either  thrown  away  or  is  carted 
off  for  manure.  One  establishment  disposes,  in  this  way, 
of  30,000  hogs.  Of  the  lard,  the  finest  is  exported — 
much  of  it  to  the  Havannah — where  it  is  used  instead  of 
butter.  About  thirty  factories  are  engaged  in  the  manu- 
facture of  lard  oil  and  stearine,  which  is  done  by  com- 
pressing the  lard  at  a  low  temperature.  The  stearine  is 
made  into  candles  on  the  spot,  of  which  6000  pounds  are 
manufactured  every  day,  on  an  average  of  the  whole 


240 


PRODUCTS  OF  THE  HOG  CROP. 


f  ii 


year.  The  lard  oil  is  partly  sold  as  such,  but  in  the 
Eastern  States  is  used  to  adulterate  spermaceti  oil, 
and  in  France  to  lower  the  price  of  olive  oil.  It  is 
said,  that  in  this  latter  country,  from  65  to  70  per  cent  of 
lard  oil  is  often  mixed  with  the  olive  oil  without  detec- 
tion. The  mixture  is  more  apt  to  deposit  stearine,  how- 
ever, than  the  pure  oil,  and  such  an  appearance  may  lead 
to  its  detection. 

The  less  pure  lard,  and  the  fat  extracted  from  diseased 
animals  and  from  the  offal,  is  used  in  the  manufacture  of 
soap.  Besides  soft  and  fancy  soaps,  there  are  made  at 
Cincinnati  about  100,000  pounds  of  soap  weekly,  and  of 
the  fat  employed  about  80  per  cent  is  pork  grease. 
Lastly,  the  bristles  give  rise  to  a  separate  business, 
employing  a  hundred  hands,  and  the  hoofs  are  partly 
boiled  down  into  glue. 

The  marketable  products  of  the  420,000  hogs  packed 
at  Cincinnati  may  be  thus  summed  up — 


Pork  (150,000  barrels,) 

Bacon, 

Lard  (No.  1,) 

Lard  oil, 

Stearine  candles, 

Bar  soap, 

Fancy  and  soft  soaps, 

Prussiate  of  potash, 


29,400,000  pounds. 
21,000,000       ... 
13,800,000       ... 

1,000,000  gallons, 

1,876,000  pounds. 

5,200,000       ... 

7,300,000      ... 
50,000      ... 


This  is  the  yearly  produce  of  a  stock  of  about  a  million 
and  a  half  of  hogs  in  the  State  of  Ohio.  In  the  whole 
United  States,  the  entire  hog  stock  is  estimated  at 
upwards  of  40,000,000.  Hog-rearing  must  therefore  be 
regarded  as  one  of  the  most  important  branches  of  rural 
economy,  and  the  hog-crop  one  to  which  yearly  attention 
should  be  given. 

This  branch  of  economy  in  Cincinnati  shows  us  how 
cities  grow^,  how  centres  of  united  and  simultaneous 
action  become  necessary  to  the  most  profitable  develop- 


the 


MANUFACTURE  AT  CINCINNATI. 


241 


ment  of  rural  industry,  and  how  many  arts  arise  out  of — 
necessarily  spring  from,  and  are  indispensable  to — the 
profitable  pursuit  of  the  farmer's  operations.  No  corn 
or  hog  grower  in  Ohio  would  venture  to  say  that  the 
interests  of  his  class  were  unconnected  with,  or  opposed 
to,  those  of  the  moneyed  men  and  enterprising  mercliants 
and  manufacturers  of  Cincinnati. 


us  how 
taneous 
evelop- 


VOL.  I. 


CHAPTEE    IX. 


Case  of  American  cleverness. — Fat  cattle  of  Ohio. — Butcher  in  Buffalo. 
— Cause  of  the  growth  of  the  city  of  Buffalo. — Capital  taken  out  by 
emigrants. — Influence  of  Europe  on  the  progress  of  American 
cities. — Cause  of  the  difference  in  progress  of  Canadian  and  New 
York  cities. — Not  a  result  of  want  of  energy  in  the  Upper  Canadians. 
— Lake  Erie. — Supposed  periodical  slow  rise  and  fall  in  the  level  of 
the  great  lakes. — Evidence  of  such  gi-adual  changes  of  level. — Their 
relatioi^  to  existing  terraces,  and  ancient  beaches. — Their  supposed 
causi  — Water  discharged  by  the  Niagara  River. — Hotel  at  the  Falls. 
— Coloured  waiters. — Geological  Section  at  the  Falls. — Published 
descriptions  of  the  Falls. — Popular  disappointment.— Wearing  action 
of  the  water. — Varying  amount  of  water  discharged  over  the  Falls. — 
Influence  of  the  winds  on  Lake  Erie. — Influence  of  the  noise  of  the 
Falls  on  their  impression  upon  the  mind.— Railway  to  Lewistown. 
— View  from  the  mountain  ridge.  Voyage  on  Lake  Ontario. — 
Qucenstown  heights. — Profits  of  New  York  farming,  by  a  New  York 
farmer. — Knowledge  and  intelligence  among  these  farmers. — City  of 
Oswego. — Sackett's  Harbour. — Railway  to  Canada. — Kingston  in 
Upper  Canada. — Character  of  the  Upper  Canadians. — Difference 
between  a  Canadian  and  a  New  York  wife  to  a  working  man. — Dif- 
ference in  the  character  ot  the  people  in  the  States  arising  from  the 
number  of  Germans  among  them. 

Sept.  IQrir. — I  began  a  previous  chapter  by  an  allu- 
sion to  the  use  of  the  word  clever  in  the  United  States ; 
I  introduce  the  present  by  an  illustration  of  the  "  clever- 
ness "  of  the  people. 

As  we  approached  the  end  of  our  journey  to  Buffalo, 
a  gentleman,  to  whom  among  many  others  I  had  been 
introduced  at  Syracuse,  but  whose  name  I  did  not  know, 
accosted  me  in  the  railway  carriage,  and  asked  me  to 


AMERICAN   CLEVERNESS. 


243 


take  up  my  quarters  at  his  house,  a  couple  of  miles  out  of 
Buffalo.  I  excused  myself  from  giving  him  trouble,  on 
the  plea  that  I  intended  to  start  again  early  in  the 
morning  for  Niagara,  and  that  it  would  be  more  con- 
venient for  me  to  go  to  the  American  Hotel.  He  then 
oifered,  while  I  waited  for  my  luggage,  to  walk  into  the 
town  to  secure  me  a  good  room  at  the  hotel.  Accord- 
ingly, half-an-hour  after,  when  I  drove  up  to  the  hotel, 
[  found  him  waiting,  and  comfortable  quarters  secured 
for  me.  In  the  morning,  when  I  asked  for  my  bill,  I 
was  told  that  everything  was  paid.  I  hesitated  at  first 
to  receive  this  pecuniary  obligation ;  but  on  reflecting 
that  it  was  meant  in  kindness,  I  felt  it  would  be  unkind 
in  me,  in  the  absence  of  my  unknown  friend,  to  refuse  it. 
I  contented  myself,  therefore,  with  inquiring  his  name, 
and  have  pleasure  in  mentioning  the  circumstance  here, 
as  an  instance  of  the  proneness  of  our  Transatlantic 
cousins  to  the  virtue  of  hospitality.  Notwithstanding  the 
sour  and  exciting  things  said  occasionally  by  bitter  journal- 
ists, on  both  sides  of  the  water,  they  will  not,  in  our  time  at 
least,  altogether  forget  that  "blood  is  thicker  than  water." 
The  long  and  wide  main  street  of  Buflfalo  reminded 
me  of  the  Trongate  of  Glasgow  more  than  of  any  other 
street  in  Europe  I  recollect  to  have  seen,  though,  of 
course,  it  is  newer,  and  less  finished  in  appearance.  On 
tlie  ev-ening  of  my  arrival  I  took  a  walk  along  it,  to  look 
at  the  many  large  and  well-stored  shops.  Among  others, 
I  went  into  a  butcher's  store,  in  which  the  beef  and  lamb, 
to  my  eyes,  seemed  excellent.  The  prices  of  lamb  and 
mutton  were  3  to  6  cents,  of  beef  4  to  8,  of  pork  6  J,  and 
of  fowls,  when  full  grown,  5  cents  a  pound.  The  import 
duty  on  Canadian  beef  is  20  per  cent ;  so  that  fat  cattle 
not  reared  at  home  are  brought  chiefly  from  Ohio,  where, 
as  I  have  said,  the  excess  of  Indian  corn  is  used  up  in 
feeding  stock.  Besides  the  "  hog  crop  "  of  south-western 
Ohio,  the  cattle  crop  of  the  eastern  portions — which  lie 


244 


AMERICA  A  GREAT  COUNTRY, 


on  the  less  fertile  sandstones  and  non-calcareous  clays  of 
the  Portage  and  Chemung  groups  of  the  New  York 
geologists — is  very  large  and  vahiable.  The  five  coun- 
ties of  Ross,  Pickaway,  Franklin,  Madison,  and  Fayette, 
send  annually  to  market  at  least  35,000  head  of  fat 
cattle,  worth  £8  a-head. 

After  I  had  asked  my  questions  of  the  butcher,  and  he 
in  return  had  found  out,  by  questioning  me,  first  how 
many  years,  and  then  how  many  months,  I  had  been  in 
America, "  Well,  sir,"  says  he,  ",we  live  in  a  great  country 
here — we  are  a  great  people."  I  evaded  what  was 
meant  as  a  question,  and  spoke  pleasantly  to  his  every- 
day ideas,  by  remarking  that  "  I  had  certainly  seen  at 
Syracuse  the  very  largest  oxen  I  had  ever  beheld."  So 
we  parted  very  good  friends,  and  he  invited  me  to  drop 
in  and  see  him  again. 

It  is  unpleasant  to  a  stranger  to  be  always  called  upon 
to  admire  and  praise  what  he  sees  in  a  foreign  country ; 
and  it  is  a  part  of  the  perversity  of  human  nature  to 
withhold,  upon  urgent  request,  what,  if  unasked,  would 
be  freely  and  spontaneously  given.  But  highly  to 
esteem,  and  value,  and  prefer  one's  native  or  adopted 
country,  is  a  virtue  which  is  to  be  commended  and 
encouraged.  It  is  the  basis  of  individual  mental  con- 
tentment, and  of  that  general  patriotism  which  has  in  so 
many  countries  led  to  great  and  noble  actions,  and  which 
has  always  ranked  the  first  .among  political  virtues.  If  a 
man  does  not  think  the  country  he  lives  in  the  best  in  the 
world,  he  had  better  leave  it.  But  this  does  not  justify 
or  excuse  either  unfounded  arrogance  or  self-esteem  in  a 
people,  or  the  tendency  to  brag  and  swagger  which  one 
does  occasionally  see  among  individuals  in  the  United 
States. 

Buffalo,  as  I  have  already  remarked,  is  a  very 
thriving  town,  and  the  causes  of  its  success  are  very 
intelligible,  though  not  always  clearly  seen   or  fairly 


B 


GROWTH  OF   BUFFALO  AND  THE  NEW  STATES.    245 


put  by  writers  on  the  rise  and  growth  of  American 
towns. 

Situated  at  the  end  of  the  Erie  Canal,  with  a  large 
American  population  and  the  highway  to  Europe  behind, 
and  with  boundless  tracts  of  new  land  before  it  beyond  the 
lakes,  Buffalo,  like  New  York,  has  risen  from  the  mere 
force  of  circumstances.  Every  emigrant,  and  every 
package  of  goods,  that  passes  through  New  York, 
Albany,  and  Buffalo,  imparts  some  gain  to  each  place  in 
the  transit.  And  as  the  city  of  New  York  increased 
with  the  western  population  of  the  state,  so  Buffalo  has 
increased,  and  will  increase,  with  the  number  of  persons  in 
the  new  north-western  States,  whose  way  to  and  from 
the  principal  markets  is  by  the  Erie  Canal. 

So  also  the  new  States  rise  in  numbers  and  wealth. 
The  poorest  of  the  Irish  immigrants  who  land  at  New 
York,  Boston,  Philadelphia,  or  New  Orleans,  bring  with 
them  some  money — the  greater  number  enough  to  pay 
the  travelling  expenses  of  their  families,  to  buy  a  piece  of 
land,  and  to  maintain  them  for  a  year.  The  fare  alone 
from  New  York  to  Chicago,  in  Wisconsin,  is  fifteen 
dollars  a-head,  which  is  about  £10  for  a  man  and  his 
wife  and  two  children.  The  English  and  Scotch  and 
German  emigrants  appear  to  be  better  and  more  thought- 
fully provided  for  than  the  Irish  ;  but  Pat's  ragged  coat, 
as  the  captains  of  steamers  know  well,  often  conceals 
more  gold  than  tlie  decenter  garments  of  the  emigrants 
from  other  countries. 

Taking  rich  and  poor  together,  it  is  a  very  moderate 
assumption  that  the  emigrants,  on  an  average,  carry  out 
i^lO  a-head,  which,  for  the  200,000  who  land  at  New 
York  alone,  makes  the  sum  of  £2,000,000  sterling  added 
at  once  to  the  money  capital  of  the  districts  through  which 
they  pass,  and  in  which  they  settle.  Then  a  single 
year's  labour  of  this  200,000,  in  agricultural  operations 
upon  new  land,  must  add  at  least  £5  a-head,  or  another 


24G 


COMPARISON  WITH  CANADIAN  CITIES. 


£1,000,000  to  the  capital  of  the  new  States;  while  the 
increased  consumption  of  imported  articles,  by  the  added 
population,  augments  the  Federal  revenue  which  is 
derived  from  the  duties  levied  upon  imports. 

It  is  Europe,  not  America,  therefore,  that  is  the  cause 
of  the  rapid  growth  of  the  Ignited  States — European 
capital,  European  hands,  and  European  energy.  If  all 
the  native-born  Americans — not  being  the  sons  or  grand- 
sons of  Europeans — were  to  sit  down  and  fold  their 
hands,  and  go  to  sleep,  the  progress  of  the  country  would 
scarcely  be  a  whit  less  rapid,  so  long  as  peace  between 
America  and  Europe  is  maintained. 

It  is  thoughtless  in  travellers  to  contrast  the  towns  of 
Buffalo  and  llochester  and  Oswego,  on  the  New  York 
side  of  the  lakes,  with  Colburn,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Wellatid  Canal,  on  the  Canadian  side  of  Lake  Erie — or 
with  Toronto  and  Kingston,  on  the  opposite  coasts  of 
Lake  Ontario ;  and  to  draw  comparisons  unfavourable  to 
Canadian  energy  and  enterprise,  from  the  relative  pros- 
perity of  these  several  places.    There  is  quite  as  much 
energy  in  the  blood  of  Upper  Canada  as  there  is  in  the 
British  and  German  blood  of  western  New  York.     But 
the  local  position  of  these  towns  of  Tipper  Canada,  and 
the  condition  of  the  inner  country,  forbids  their  becom- 
ing, for  many  years,  equal  in  size  or  in  wealth  to  the 
towns  I  have  named.     Suppose  Colburn,  like  Buffalo — 
being  at  the  end  of  canal  navigation — had  as  large  and 
growing  a  population  behind  it,  and  as  extensive  and 
valuable  western  territories  before  it,  and  that  the  high- 
way from  Europe  lay  through  it  instead  of  through 
Buffalo,  then  Colburn  would  have  rivalled  or  exceeded 
Buffalo,  even  at  this  early  period  of  their  several  histories. 
But  this  slow  town  of  Colburn,  as  many  have  thought 
and  called  it,  has  nevertheless  a  great  future  before  it. 
The  natural  outlet  of  this  western  region  is  by  the  St 
Lawrence.     The  Erie  Canal  is  already  unable  to  accom- 


Jt.. 


RAPID  PROOKE88  OF   UPPER  CANADA. 


247 


modato  its  traffic,  and  as  this  increases  with  the  growth 
of  the  North-western  States,  more  and  more  of  it  must 
proceed  by  the  Canadian  canals  and  waters,  and  drop  its 
fertilising  contributions  as  it  passes  through  the  country. 
With  the  settlement  of  the  interior,  also,  and  the  increase 
of  means  of  inter-communication,  Toronto,  as  the  natural 
course  of  the  cross  country  traffic  from  Lake  Huron ;  and 
Kingston,  from  its  situation  at  the  head  of  the  St  Law- 
rence, will  both  become  seats  of  commercial  wealth,  and 
towns  of  political  importance.  I  am  sure  that,  if  my 
Canadian  fellow-subjects  will  be  content  to  wait  patiently 
for  the  natural  course  of  events,  which  no  Government 
or  energy  can  precipitate,  but  which  domestic  disturb- 
ances will  much  retard — most  seriously,  perhaps,  by  their 
effect  upon  European  opinion  as  to  the  desirableness  of 
the  Canadas  as  a  place  of  settlement — they  will  soon  see 
every  reasonable  expectation  fulfilled.  Even  now,  in- 
stead of  granting  that  they  are  justified  in  looking  either 
with  envy  or  discontent  at  the  growth  of  other  places,  I 
can  only  see  reason  to  wonder  that,  in  their  geographical 
position,  and  with  their  political  fretfulness,  they  have  of 
late  years  increased  so  wondrously  fast. 

The  morning  was  fine  as  I  left  Buffalo  in  the  railway, 
which  skirted  the  foot  of  the  lake,  and  for  a  great  part 
of  the  way  ran  along  the  banks  of  the  Niagara  River. 
The  waters  of  Lake  Erie,  rippled  by  a  light  wind,  were 
of  a  beautiful  blue,  and  the  numerous  vessels  to  be  seen 
on  it  made  the  view  to  me  very  interesting.  To  see  on 
the  far  horizon  large  ships  crowded  with  canvass,  loom- 
ing through  the  thin  haze,  and  blue  misty  hills  in  the 
distance,  such  as  one  observes  with  eagerness  when 
making  the  land  after  a  long  voyage  across  the  ocean, 
realised  to  my  eye  that  this  fresh-water  lake  is,  in  reality, 
a  great  inland  sea. 

Before  leaving  this  lake,  I  may  advert  to  one  impor- 
tant physical  circumstance,  in  regard  to  the  level  of  its 


CHANGE   OP  LEVEL  IN   THE 

waters,  to  which  my  attention  has  been  drawn.  It  is 
the  result  of  long  observation  that  the  surface  of  this, 
and,  I  believe,  of  the  other  lakes  also,  is  subject  to  gra- 
dual, and,  as  some  believe,  periodical,  but  certainly  very 
considerable  alterations  of  level. 

This  is  proved  by  the  observations  of  those  who  reside 
on  their  shores.  The  water  on  sand-banks  becomes 
shallower  or  deeper.  Mills  at  the  mouths  of  streams  are 
rendered  permanently  useless  by  the  rising  level  of  the 
lake  into  which  the  streams  descend.  Former  roads 
along  the  lake,  as  that  immediately  beyond  Buftalo,  have 
been  overflowed,  and  rendered  impassable.  Old  beaches, 
covered  with  trees  and  cliffs,  are  seen  far  inland,  showing 
the  greater  height  to  which  the  waters  formerly  attained; 
Avhile  others,  which  men  remember  to  have  been  at  a 
distance  from  the  lake,  have  again  been  reached,  and 
are  in  progress  of  being  undermined. 

The  height  and  periods  of  this  rise  and  fall  are  both 
imcertain.  In  1838,  Lake  Erie  reached  the  highest 
elevation  it  has  attained  during  the  present  century,  and 
since  that  time  it  has  been  gradually  receding.  In 
1788  or  1790,  it  was  higher  than  in  1838,  after  which 
time  it  receded  probably  for  many  years,  and  then 
began  again  to  rise.  On  the  shores  of  Michigan,  the 
rise  was  estimated  at  5^  feet  between  1819  and  1838 ; 
and  in  another  place,  a  resident  of  twenty-three  years 
on  the  spot  observed  that,  though  it  was  highest  in 
1838,  it  was,  in  1840,  still  4  feet  higher  than  when  he 
settled  there  in  1817. 

Facts  of  this  kind  have  long  drawn  the  attention  of 
the  inhabitants  along  the  lakes.  They  are  to  them  a 
source  of  anxiety,  and,  where  low  flat  lands  stretch 
along  either  shore  of  the  lake,  of  alternate  gain  and  loss. 
They  are  also  interesting  to  the  geologist,  in  connection 
with  the  ancient  terraces,  and  the  frequent  more  or  less 
distant    sea-beaches    which    skirt    the    lake-shores    at 


WATERS  OP  THE   LAKES. 


249 


various  plnccs.  How  high  the  lake  may  rise,  when  it 
next  begins  to  increase,  past  experience  does  not  enable 
us  to  judge.  As  we  are  ignorant  of  the  cause,  wo 
cannot  say  to  what  level  a  rise  is  possible  in  existing 
circumstances;  we  cannot,  therefore,  reason  as  to  the 
cause  or  anti(^aity  of  the  ancient  lake-beaches,  especially 
those  which  are  not  greatly  elevated  above  the  present 
waters,  or  draw  safe  conclusions  as  to  the  permanent 
change  of  level  which  the  lakes  may  now  be  presumed 
to  have  undergone.  Hence  these  oscillations  in  the 
lake-levels  have  been  subjects  of  inquiry  and  discussion 
both  by  Mr  Hall,  one  of  the  geologists  for  the  State  of 
New  York,  and  by  JMr  Higgins,  of  the  geological  survey 
of  Michigan. 

Variations  in  the  fall  of  snow  and  rain  in  the  lake 
country,  and  dift'erences  in  the  amount  of  evaporation, 
suggest  themselves  as  the  simplest  causes  of  the  pheno- 
mena.   But  such  causes — unless,  in  this  region,  they  act 
in  obedience  to  some  steady  alternating  law — will  not 
explain  the  specialties  of  the  case.     The  rise  and  fall  of 
the  lake-levels  are  so  gradual,  and  continue  to  augment 
for  so  long  a  period,  that  a  steady  and  increasing  aug- 
mentation of  the  water  poured  into  the  lakes  must  go 
on  while  the  level  is  rising,  and  a  similar  gradual  and 
long-continued  diminution  while  it  is  falling.     Meteoro- 
logieal  observations  have  not  yet  shown  that  such  aug- 
mentations as  these  of  the  fall  of  rain  and  snow,  or  of 
lake  evaporation,  do  take  place  in  any  part  of  the  world. 
The  quantity  of  water  which  escapes  from  the  lake 
by  its  natural  outlet,  the  Niagara  Eiver,  is  an  important 
fact  in  this  discussion.     The  Falls  of  Niagara,  during 
the  high-water  of  summer,  allow  20,000,000  of  cubic 
feet  to  fall  over  them* — a  discharge  which,  taking  the 
area  of  Lake  Erie  at  10,000  miles,t  would  lower  the 

*  This  is  Mr  Barrett's,  the  latest  and  best  determination. 
+  Dr  Houghton  estimates  it  at  9600  square  miles. 


250 


PROBABLE  CAUSE  OF  THIS  CHANGE. 


level  of  the  lake  one  foot  in  ten  days ;  or,  more  cor- 
rectly, if  Niagara  were  dammed  up,  the  level  of  the 
whole  lake  would  be  raised  two  feet  in  ten  days — one  foot 
by  the  usual  supply  of  water  poured  into  the  lake  from 
above,  and  another  by  the  water  prevented  from  escap- 
ing. Any  sudden  increase  in  the  fall  of  rain  or  snow, 
therefore,  would  soon  run  off,  and  leave  the  lake  at  its 
usual  level. 

If  we  consider  the  case  of  Lake  Erie  by  itself,  and 
compare  its  area  of  10,000  square  miles  with  that  of 
all  the  upper  lakes  united,  which  cover  77,000  square 
miles,  and  suppose  th'-^e  upper  lakes  to  be  raised  very 
high  by  one  extrac  inary  fall  of  rain  or  snow,  or  by 
a  great  diminution  in  the  evaporation  of  one  short 
coiv^  summer,  then  it  is  possible  that  the  discharge  from 
these  upper  lakes  of  this  one  unusual  amount  of  water 
might,  by  the  nature  of  the  outlet  into  Lake  Erie,  be  so 
regulated  as  to  continue  augmenting  for  a  series  of 
years,  and  again,  as  it  lessens,  to  continue  diminishing 
for  another  series.  But  this  possible  explanation  seems 
to  fail,  when  it  is  recollected  that  Lake  Michigan  itself, 
one  of  hese  upper  lakes,  exhibits  similar  oscillations  of 
level.  The  source  of  the  increased  or  diminished  supply 
must,  therefore,  be  sought  for  in  Lake  Superior,  if  this 
be  considered  a  probable  cause.  But,  unfortunately, 
the  remoteness  and  hitherto  generally  wilderness  state 
of  the  shores  of  this  lake  have  prevented  any  obser- 
vations being  made,  by  which  light  could  be  thrown 
on  this  interesting  point. 

Part  of  the  country  through  which  the  railway  con- 
ducted us  on  our  way  to  Niagara  was  still  uncleared  or 
unstump<  J,  and  sprinkled  with  log-huts  and  apparently 
poor  settlers,  surroundeci  by  indifferent  crops  of  Indian 
corn,  on  soils  evidently  better  adapted  for  wheat.  We 
cross  again,  on  this  route,  the  belt  of  flat  wheat-land, 
belonging  to  the  Ouondago  salt  and  Niagara  limestone 


VILLAGE   AND   HOTEL  AT   NIAGARA. 


251 


groups,  wliich,  as  I  formerly  stated,  stretches  beyond 
the  Niagara  Birer  far  into  Canada.  As  seen  here,  it  is 
a  clayey  rogion,  on  which  the  system  of  thorough- 
drainage  is  destined  hereafter  to  produce  most  beneficial 
results. 

I  reached  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  on  the  American  side, 
at  a  quarter  past  ten,  in  time  to  hear  service  well  per- 
formed in  a  new,  nicely-finished,  though  small  Episcopal 
church.  This  village  of  Niagara  consists  chiefly  of 
hotels  and  churches;  and  the  running  of  a  morning  and 
evening  train  to  Buffalo  is  considered  indispensable  to 
the  success  of  at  least  one  of  these  sets  of  establish- 
ments. 

At  dinner  at  the  Cataract  Hotel,  we  had  a  large  party  of 
about  a  hundred  and  twenty,  though  not  half  as  many 
as  the  room  was  fitted  to  accommodate.  This  universal 
dining  in  public,  in  the  United  States,  of  all  sexes  and 
ages,  is  one  source  of  the  forward  boldness  of  so  many  of 
the  young  people.  And  although  the  mingling  of  all 
classes  at  these  tables  teaches  the  use  of  silver  forks  to 
persons  who  would  never  meet  with  such  things  at 
home,  yet  it  roughens  the  general  tone  of  speech  and 
manners  of  all,  and  makes  those  who  really  know  better 
fall  into  customs  they  would  at  home  be  the  first  to 
reprove. 

I  may  remark,  however,  that  perhaps  too  much  is  said 
by  travellers  of  the  solecisms  of  guests  at  the  American 
tables.  I  doubt  very  much  if  a  similarly  indiscriminate 
assemblage  of  persons  of  all  classes  at  an  English  table 
would,  on  the  whole,  behave  so  well.  Besides,  the  cus- 
tom In  the  American  hotels  of  loading  the  table  at 
breakfast  and  dinner  with  a  countless  number  of  small 
dishes,  not  half  of  which  are  furnished  with  knives  and 
forks,  or  spoons  to  lift  their  contents,  leaves  the  majo- 
rity of  the  guests  no  other  resource,  than  either  to  be 
lielped  with  their  own,  or  probably  to  deny  themselves 


252 


COLOURED  WAITERS. 


what  the  dishes  contain  altogether,  and  leave  them  to 
less  scrupulous  neighbours. 

What  amused  me  most  at  this  hotel  was  the  excellent 
discipline  maintained  by  their  chef  among  the  eighteen 
black  waiters  who  attended  the  table.    In  carrying  out 
the  first  course,  they  all  started  at  a  signal,  and  marched 
en  militaire  in  double  file,  each  bearing  his  dish,  and 
presently  returned  in  the  same  order  with  the  second 
course,  opening  into  Indian  file  as  they  readied  the  head 
of  the  table ;  and  when  each  had  reached  his  station, 
depositing  the  whole  at  the  same  instant  on  a  signal 
from  the  head-waiter,  who  was  also  dark-coloured.    The 
peculiar  proud  swagger  with  which  all  this  was  done, 
the  air  of  the  men  as  they  strutted  along,  and  the  evi- 
dent "  Isn't  that  well  done  ? ""  which  each  of  them  looked 
as  he  lifted  his  cover,  were  most  amusing  to  me,  who 
had  not  yet  had  much  opportunity  of  studying  the  pecu- 
liarities of  the  free   coloured  people  in  the  northern 
States.     My  own  sympathies  have  always  followed  this 
unhappy  race  of  people,  whether  in  slavery  or  in  free- 
dom, and  I  have  usually  found  them  civil  and  obliging. 
They  are  often,  however,  very  conceited ;  and  can  be 
very  saucy,  as  white  servants  in  English  hotels   not 
unfrequently  are.    But  they  are  in  general  very  quiet  and 
civil,  and  have  a  peculiar  knack  at  waiting.     Of  abso- 
lute  rudeness   among  this   class    of  people,    the  only 
instance  I  met  v/ith  was  in  the  Irving  Hotel  in  New 
York,  where  black  servants  are  employed,  and  where,  on 
the   occasion   of  my    vi  I.,   one   peculiarly  black  and 
impertinent  sheep  had  certainly  found  a  place  among 
the  flock. 

In  the  afternoon,  I  went  down  n  the  Falls.  I  crossed 
over  to  the  Canadian  side,  and  spi  nt  several  hours  on 
the  banks  which  overlook  them.  I  afterwards  walked 
to  the  suspension  bridge  a  couple  of  miles  below,  which 
is  itself  a  nervous  thing  to  walk  along,  and  from  which 


.1 


SECTION  OP  THE  IIOCKS. 


253 


the  view  of  the  Falls,  and  of  the  ravine,  is  striking  and 
beautiful.  The  section  of  the  strata,  as  seen  at  this 
place,  is  as  follows: —  /  , 


:  } 


Limestone, 

Shale, 

Limestone, 

Sandstone    and    thin  ] 
clay  marls,  chiefly  > 
red,  J 


Niagara  group. 
Clinton  group. 

Medina  sandstone. 


This  section  is  now  well  known,  as  well  as  the  influence  of 
the  Niagara  shale,  in  hastening  the  working  back  of  the 
Great  Falls.  It  illustrates,  however,  what  I  have  had 
occasion  to  say  in  reference  to  the  soils  and  geology  of 
western  New  York.  The  numerous  layers  of  red  clay 
marl,  among  the  red  rocks  of  the  underlying  Medina 
sandstone,  are  in  conformity  with  the  economically  im- 
portant observation,  in  reference  to  the  agricultural 
value  of  this  group  of  rocks,  to  which  1  adverted  in 
the  preceding  chapter — that  the  poorer  Medina  sand- 
rock  or  the  eastern  counties  of  New  York  becomes  more 
mixed  with  clay  towards  the  west.  Hence  the  rich  soils 
to  which  it  gives  rise  below  the  mouth  of  the  Niagara 
E,iver,  and  along  the  south-western  borders  of  Lake 
Ontario,  where  it  forms  the  surface  of  the  country. 

Above  the  Niagara  limestone,  rest  the  Onondaga  salt 
roclis  and  their  debris;  and  though  these  are  spread  over 
the  surface  of  the  country  in  toe  neighbourhood  of  the 
village  of  Niagara,  they  are  not  seen  in  the  section  of 
the  ravine  as  it  appears  from  tiAC  bridge,  nor  on  the 
immediate  banks  of  the  rive  >•, 

I  attempt  no  description  of  the  Falls.  The  first  peep 
I  had  of  them  showed  me  how  very  little  all  I  had  read 
of  them  had  impressed  me  with  anything  like  a  definite 
idea  of  the  peculiar  featui'es  of  this  great  descent  of 
water,  or  of  what  I  was  entitled  to  expect  when  I  came 
to  look  upon  it.     I  infer,  from  this,  that  they  cannot  be 


' 


254 


THE  PALLS  OP   NIAGARA. 


adequately  and  graphically  described — or,  at  least,  that 
I  should  fail  were  I  to  attempt  to  do  so.  I  have  seen 
many  water-falls  in  many  countries,  and  I  venture  only 
to  remark,  in  regard  to  this  one,  that  I  think  it  is  a 
piece  of  great  presumption  in  the  common  class  of 
tourists  to  talk  as  one  usually  hears  them  do,  of  their 
having  been  disappointed — as  if  some  great  showman 
had  got  up  the  thing  for  their  amusement,  ard  had  not 
put  gunpowder  enough  into  the  crackers  sufficiently 
to  astonish  their  weak  minds. 

On  the  Canadian  side  of  the  Falls,  a  high  bluff  of  red, 
probably  drifted  clay,  rests  above  the  Niagara  limestone, 
forming  an  upland  above  the  narrow  fringe  which  sepa- 
rates it  from  the  waters  of  the  river  above  the  Falls. 
Below  the  falls,  this  bluff  retires  to  a  considerable  dis- 
tance frorti  the  river,  and  the  carriage-road  to  the  suspen- 
sion bridge  runs  along  the  surface  of  the  nearly  naked 
rock.    When  walking  leisurely  here,  two  things  agree  in 
forcing  the  same  thought  upon  the  Imagination.    Where 
it  is  completely  uncovered,  the  whole  upper  surface  of 
the  limestone  rock,  on  which  we  travel,  exhibits  evidence 
of  the  wearing  action  of  the   water.     It  has  the  same 
hollowed  and  irregular  appearance  as  the  surface  above 
the  falls,  over  which  the  water  is  now  pouring.     Over 
this,  therefore,  the  river  must  formerly  have  run,  before 
it  ate  out  the  deep  ravine  below.    And,  again,  the  retir- 
ing of  the  bluffs  shows  that  it  then,  as  we  should  sup- 
pose, had  occupied  a  wider  bed,  and,  as  it  now  does  above 
the  Falls,  had  undermined  the  cliffs  of  clay,  and  bent  its 
course  now  more  to  the  one  side,  and  now  more  to  the 
other,  as  circumstances  might  direct.     One  reflects  on 
such  things,  and  in  his  closet  makes  cool  calculations  of 
the  lapse  of  time  necessary  to  accomplish  all  this.     But 
the  greatness  of  the  lapse  Is  felt  when  we  see  before  us 
the  protracted  effect,  and  the  still  living  and  acting  cause. 
The  foam  of  the  cataract  becomes,  to  the  Imagination, 


WATER  FLOWING  OVER  THE  FALLS. 


255 


tie  hoary  hair  of  thousands  of  years,  and  its  perpetual 
ravibow  a  halo  round  the  head  of  the  sleepless  spirit 
which  has  seen  these  changes  and  survived  them  all.    ;: 

The  quantity  of  water  which  falls  over  these  rocks 
has  been  variously  estimated.  The  most  trustworthy, 
perhaps,  is  that  of  Mr  Barrett,  already  quoted,  which 
was  deduced  from  three  different  observations,  made  at 
Black  Kock  during  the  high  water  of  1838  and  1839. 
This  estimate  makes  it  amount  to  nineteen  and  a  half 
million  cubic  feet  per  minute.  It  varies  very  much, 
however,  with  the  height  of  the  water  and  the  direction 
of  the  wind.  When  a  strong  wind  blows  from  the  west, 
t'le  water  at  the  east  end  of  Lake  Erie  will  rise  several 
feet  in  a  few  hours ;  and  so  much  more  water  is  driven 
down  the  Niagara  Kiver  at  such  times  that  the  river  in 
the  ravine  below  the  Falls,  though  so  rapid,  "  frequently 
rises  15  or  20  feet  during  a  westerly  wind."  A  wind 
from  the  east  produces  a  contrary  effect,  lowering  the 
water  at  the  east  end  of  Lake  Erie,  and  lessening  the 
quantity  of  water  which  passes  over  the  Falls. 

September  17. — The  forenoon  of  this  day  I  spent 
chiefly  on  Goat  Island,  wandering  about  the  Falls  on  the 
American  side.  There  is  nothing  to  be  seen  from  this 
side  which  can  compare  with  the  quiet  and  graceful 
beauty  of  the  American  Fall,  as  seen  from  the  Canadian 
side.  .  The  perfection  with  which  the  folds  of  that  broad, 
living,  spotless  stream  arc  draped  tog  ther  cannot  be 
imagined ;  and  though  there  are  many  beauties  among 
which  days  are  too  litt.e  to  spend  on  Goat  Island,  the 
quieter  spots  were  to  me  the  most  attractive.  In  truth ^ 
the  reason  w^hy  the  disappointed  people  talk  of  the  thing 
growing  upon  them  is,  tuat  they  must  become  so 
familiarised  with  the  noise  and  roar  as  to  be  able  to 
abstract  these  altogether  from  the  scene,  before  their 
eyes  and  hearts  can  come  into  independent  contact 
with   its   true    attractions.      This  abstraction,    to   the 


II 

-iiHwIJ 

Ijnf 

iV 

1 

ill 

m 

W3 


266 


VIEW   FROM  THE  KIDGE  AT   LEWISTON. 


generality  of  minda,  is  a  difficult  task ;  but,  once  made, 
then  the  sound  of  the  cataract  comes  in  like  far  off 
music — "Dt  in  the  foreground,  deafening  and  annoying, 
but  soothing  and  lulling,  as  it  were,  in  the  distance,  and 
thus  administering  to  the  enjoyment  it  had  formerly 
intruded  upon  and  broken  up. 

The  fresh-water  shells  which  occur  in  the  deep  bed  of 
mixed  slaty  gravel  and  red  clay  drift,  which  covers  the 
limestone  rocks  at  the  edge  of  the  waterfall  upon  Goat 
Island,  are  now  well  known.  The  minute,  almost 
microscopic  species,  I  found  very  abundant  in  the  clay. 
Besides  the  shells  usually  collected,  I  picked  up  a  frag- 
ment of  a  fresh-water  crustacean. 

After  dinner,  I  left  Niagara,  on  my  way  to  Lewiston 
— where  the  river  escapes  from  the  ravine  and  the  high 
lands-r-to  take  the  steamer  down  Lake  Ontario.     This 
railway  is  a  very  indiiferent  affair,  and  Lewiston  a  long 
straggling  skeleton  of  a  place  ;  but  the  last  mile*'s  ride 
along  the  edge  of  the  ridge,  and  the  view  it  affords,  is 
worth  going  twice  as  far,  and  by  a  still  rougher  road,  to 
enjoy.     Sheer  down  we  looked  from  a  high  escarpment, 
upon  the  broad  flat  forest  lands,  stretching  many  miles 
back  from  the  lake,  and  along  its  shores  farther  than  the 
eye   could  reach.      Here   and   there   only,   in   all  this 
distance,  a  clearihg  appeared  ;  while  right  before  us  lay 
the   endless   lake,   and    its    occasionally   bolder  shores 
beyond,  with  now  and  then  a  straggling  sail  or  a  distant 
steamer's  smoke,  and  all  mellowed  and  blended  together 
by  a  four  o'clock   sun.      The  whole  prospect  perhaps 
struck  me  the  more  that  it  came  upon  me  nnite  unex- 
pectedly ;  but  I  regretted  much  that  previous  arrange- 
ments did  not  admit  of  my  spending  a  day  in  wander- 
ing over  these  high  lands — scarcely  allowed  me   even 
a  moment  to  master  what  was  before  my  eyes,  as  the 
steam  was  up,  and  bags  and  portmanteaus  demanded 
the  attention  of  the  careful  traveller. 


THE   MOUNTAIN -RIDGE. 


257 


ce  made, 
s  far  off 
nnoying, 
nice,  and 
formerly 

jp  bed  of 
overs  the 
pon  Goat 
e,  almost 
the  clay, 
p  a  frag- 

Lewiston 
d  the  high 
rio.     This 
on  a  long 
mile's  ride 
affords,  is 
er  road,  to 
scarpment, 
Liany  miles 
than  the 
In   all  this 
ore  us  lay 
er   shores 
a  distant 
d  together 
ct  perhaps 
nlte  unex- 
is  arrauge- 
n  wander- 
me   even 
res,  as  the 
demanded 


The  mountain-ridge,  as  it  is  called,  formed  by  the 
outcrop  of  the  Niagara  limestone,  has  been  long  known 
to  the  inhabitants  of  western  New  York.  When,  some 
two  centuries  hence,  all  the  low  plain  beneath  it  shall  be 
cleared,  and  drained,  and  cultivated,  and  smiling  villages, 
and  cheerful  homesteads,  and  scattered  flocks  and  herds, 
overspread  its  surface,  and  the  blue  smoke  dies  away  from 
many  chimneys  as  the  Sabbath-bell  draws  the  gathering 
people  toward  the  frequent  house  of  worship  —  how 
many,  in  those  days,  for  broad  pictures  of  wide  natural 
beauty,  intense  with  countless  little  episodes  of  still  life, 
will  frequent  this  mountain-ridge,  when  the  noise  of  the 
cataract  has  wearied  them,  and  they  wish  again  to  calm 
and  compose  their  spirits,  worn  out  by  its  ever-fretting 
impatience ! 

The  escarpment  which  forms  this  ridge  is  bolder  above 
the  village  of  Lewiston  than  it  is  in  some  other  parts  of 
its  course  along  the  southern  shores  of  Lake  Ontario. 
The  following  section  (taken  from  Mr  Hall)  gives  an 
idea  of  the  physical  and  geological  nature  of  the  ridge 
itself,  and  of  the  flat  country  and  its  soils  which  lie 
below —  * 


Here  the  section  No.  1  is  the  Medina  sandstone,  con- 
sisting chiefly  of  red  sandstones  and  shivery  clay  marls. 
No.  2  is  the  Clinton  group,  of  no  great  thickness  or 
consequence  ;  and  No.  3  the  Niagara  shale,  surmounted 
by  the  Niagara  limestone.  The  long  flat  edging  of  the 
lake  consists  of  the  red  soils  of  the  Medina  rocks,  and 
ought  to  be  veiy  productive.     In  many  places,  from  its 


VOL.  I. 


K 


i       I 
i.      > 


!l   ' 


258 


A   NATIVE  ON  THE   PROFITS  OP  FARMING 


level  character,  it  is  marshy  or  full  of  water;  and  in 
many  others  arterial  drainage  on  an  extensive  scale  will 
probably  have  to  be  introduced,  before  the  capabilities  of 
the  country  can  be  at  all  fully  developed. 

The  escarpment  of  the  Niagara  limestone  is  not 
everywhere,  as  I  have  already  remarked,  so  high  nor 
so  abrupt  as  it  is  represented  in  the  above  section ;  but, 
with  occasional  breaks,  it  may  be  visited  along  a  great 
part  of  western  New  York,  with  the  certainty  of  com- 
manding from  its  summit  an  extensive  view  of  the  flat 
country  below,  and  of  the  wide  blue  lake  beyond.  It 
extends  also,  towards  the  north,  round  the  western  end 
of  Lake  Ontario,  and  then  eastward  for  many  miles, 
forming  an  escarpment  far  behind  Toronto,  carrying 
with  it  into  Upper  Canada  a  wheat-region,  not  unlike 
that  of;  western  New  York. 

As  we  steamed  from  Lewlston  through  the  mouth  of 
the  Niagara  Eiver,  and  entered  the  lake,  Queenstown,  on 
the  Canadian  side,  appeared  to  us  on  the  water  to  be  at 
least  as  flourishing  as  Lewiston,  which  we  had  just 
surveyed  by  land.  The  heights  above  it,  on  which 
opposing  forces  of  the  same  blood,  witll*  equal  gallantry, 
fought  the  battle  of  Queenstown,  and  where  the  well- 
known  pillar  commemorates  the  fall  of  the  brave  Sir 
Isaac  Brock,  are  as  high  as  the  ridge  above  Lewiston, 
of  which  I  have  spoken,  and  promise  to  the  lovers  of  the 
picturesque  as  wide,  and  if  it  bear  the  eye  to  the  western 
extremity  of  Lake  Ontario,  a  wider,  and  perhaps  a  still 
more  beautiful  view  of  mixed  land  and  water,  high-land, 
forest,  and  cultivated  fields. 

On  board  the  steamer,  I  had  a  concluding  conversa- 
tion on  the  profits  of  farming  in  western  New  York, 
with  a  practical  farmer  from  Syracuse.  "  The  results  of 
my  personal  experience  are,"  he  said,  "  that  money  is 
not  to  be  made  by  farming  in  this  State.  If  a  farmer 
hire  two  men,  and  work  with  them,  and  keep  them  at 


IN   WESTERN   NEW   YORK. 


269 


their  work,  he  may  maintain  his  family,  and  clear  8  per 
cent  upon  the  value  of  his  farm.  But  if  he  farm  more 
largely,  as  a  gentleman  farmer,  leaving  the  management 
to  an  overseer,  he  will  not  make  more  than  perhaps  2  or 
3  per  cent.  Farming  is  much  less  profitable  in  my 
county  of  Onondaga,  during  the  last  five  years,  than  it 
used  to  be.  Exhaustion  has  diminished  the  produce  of 
wheat,  formerly  the  great  staple  of  the  country.  When 
the  wheat  fell  off,  barley,  which  at  first  yielded  50  or  60 
bushels,  was  raised  year  after  year,  till  the  land  fell  away 
from  this  also,  and  became  full  of  weeds.  It  still  grows 
50  bushels  of  Indian  corn,  and  this  is  the  best  crop  we  now 
get — but  it  must  be  manured.  Much  is  now  laid  down 
to  grass  to  be  recruited ;  but  those  who  are  anxious  to 
make  money  are  turning  their  hands  to  something  else, 
and  either  selling  or  letting  their  farms.  A  farm  in  a  good 
situation  can  be  let  to  pay  5  per  cent ;  but  as  7  per  cent  is 
easy  to  be  got  for  money,  few  persons  care  to  continue 
the  owners  of  farms  which  they  cannot  cultivate  them- 
selves, and  can  only  let  to  yield  a  return  like  this."" 

Such  was  my  new  friend's  opinion  of  agriculture  in 
the  empire  State ;  and  I  have  since  met  with  many  who 
agreed  with  him  in  all  essential  points.  No  interest  in 
national  importance  can  ever,  in  this  New  World,  compete 
with  the  agricultural ;  and  yet,  after  the  first  two  or  three 
generations,  the  most  energetic  and  aspiring  sons  of  the 
first  pioneers  forsake  the  scene  of  their  fathers'  labours, 
and  betake  themselves  either  to  other  pursuits  or  to  new 
regions.  A  certain  numerical  strength,  permanent 
competency,  and  abiding  position  in  long-known  locali- 
ties, will  always  in  every  country  remain  with  the 
owners  of  the  land ;  but  in  the  United  States,  as  else- 
where, the  energy  and  activity,  and  intellectual  influence 
upon  social  and  political  progress,  will  be  mainly  pos- 
sessed by  the  alert  and  enterprising  brood  who  yearly 
hive  off"  from  the  old  lichen-covered  stationary  stock. 


! 


KNOWLEDGE  OF  NEW   YORK   FARMERS. 

I  shall  have  occasion,  hereafter,  to  speak  of  tlio 
prospects  of  agriculture,  and  of  the  progress  of  rural 
improvement  in  general,  in  the  State  of  New  York.  I 
will  here  only  add,  in  justice  to  the  New  York  farmers, 
that,  in  my  journey  to  Buffalo,  T  was  struck  with  the 
very  general  familiarity  which  seemed  to  prevail  among 
practical  men  as  to  the  geological  character  of  their 
country,  and  the  relation  which  the  geological  details 
had  to  the  agricultural  qualities  of  their  farms.  The 
efforts  of  the  State  Government,  in  distributing  numerous 
volumes  of  their  Natural  History  Survey,  has  no  doubt 
aided  much  in  diffusing  this  knowledge,  so  rare  in  an 
agricultural  community,  and  yet  so  creditable  to  their 
intellectual  position.  In  the  county  of  Surrey  only, 
and  along  the  borders  of  the  chalk  and  green-sand 
country  of  England — where  geological  differences  affect 
the  soils  in  so  marked  a  manner,  and  within  such  short 
distances — have  I  met  among  practical  farmers,  with  so 
clear  an  idea  of  local  geological  relations,  and  of  their 
connection  with  rural  labours  and  profits. 

As  the  boat  paddled  out  into  the  lake,  the  water 
roughened  a  little,  and  many  of  the  passengers  became 
indisposed.  I  had  a  comfortable  state-room;  but  the 
meals,  which  were  included  in  the  fare,  were  uncomfortable 
and  crowded.  It  was  little  else  than  a  rush  and  a  scramble, 
where  the  slowest  and  weakest  got  neither  place  nor 
pudding.  At  11  p.  M.  we  reached  Rochester,  a  distance 
of  80  miles,  and  after  a  short  delay  steamed  on  to 
Oswego,  65  miles  farther,  where  we  arrived  at  6  in  the 
morning,  and  were  at  first  allowed  time  only  for  a  short 
stroll,  but  finally  were  detained  till  half-past  10,  in 
waiting  the  arrival  of  the  train  from  Syracuse. 

The  flower-mills  of  Oswego  are,  I  believe,  the  staple 
source  of  its  prosperity.  It  is  a  thriving  town,  and,  being 
at  the  termination  of  the  canal  and  of  the  railroad — both 
of  which  connect  it  directly  with  the  Atlantic,  while  the 


STEAM  VOYAGE  TO  KINGSTON. 


261 


lake  lays  open  all  Canada  and  the  west — its  commerce 
and  importance  are  likely  to  augment.  In  anticipation 
of  this,  it  has  already  been  incorporated  into  a  city.  My 
readers  must  not  interpret  this  as  indicating  a  very  rapid 
or  high  degree  of  prosperity,  since  the  language  of  this 
State,  as  I  have  already  explained,  recognises  nothing 
between  a  village  and  a  city. 

Through  this  port,  a  large  part  of  Upper  Canada  is 
supplied  with  salt  from  the  salines  of  Syracuse ;  and 
along  the  wharfs  lay  numerous  little  mountains  of  salt- 
casks,  waiting  to  be  shipped. 

From  Oswego  to  Sackett's  Harbour  was  a  iim  of  forty- 
five  miles,  along  a  shore  which  is  still  very  much  wooded. 
Now  and  then,  in  the  midst  of  the  forest,  a  few  burnings 
became  visible,  showing  the  work  of  clearing  to  be  still 
in  progress. 

Beyond  Sackett's  Harbour,  on  its  north-eastern  side,  is 
laid  out  the  railway  now  in  progress,  which  is  to  connect 
Kingston  in  Upper  Canada,  across  the  Ten  Thousand  Isles, 
with  Rome  in  the  State  of  New  York,  and  thence  by  the 
existing  line  with  Albany.  It  will  be  a  great  boon  to 
Canada  when  it  is  finished,  and  a  matter  of  much 
moment  also  to  the  city  of  New  York. 

The  village  of  Sackett's  Harbour  shows  nothing  to 
arrest  attention,  beyond  its  hotel,  and  some  signs  of 
increase  in  size.  After  stopping  about  an  hour  we 
started  again  for  Kingston,  which  is  forty  miles  across 
the  lake,  making  in  all  a  distance,  by  this  route,  of  two 
hundred  and  thirty  miles  from  Lewiston  to  Kingston. 

The  harbour  (Sackett's)  and  the  islands  about  its  mouth, 
and  among  which  we  steamed,  made  this  part  of  the 
voyage  very  pleasant.  We  passed  the  main  channel  of 
the  St  Lawrence,  which  is  about  a  mile  in  width,  bore 
up  N.  by  E.  at  Simcoe  Island,  on  which  the  lighthouse 
stands,  and  then  sailed  a  straight  course  of  many  miles 
for  Kingston.     Long  before  the  eye  could  make  out  the 


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262   DIFFERENCES  BETWEEN  CANADA  AND  NEW  YORK. 

houses  of  the  city,  the  towers  of  a  lofty  building  raised 
themselves  like  a  beacon,  far  above  every  other  object 
in  massive  proportions  and  in  height.  As  we  neared 
the  coast  this  proved  to  be  the  Roman  Catholic  cathedral, 
occupying  the  highest  ground  in  the  city.  In  many 
other  parts  of  North  America,  as  well  as  here,  I  have 
found  the  Romish  churches  ambitiously  securing  the  most 
prominent  and  imposing  positions.  They  are  all  selected 
with  an  eye  to  the  future. 

At  6  P.M.  we  landed  on  the  pier.  I  almost  felt  myself 
at  home  again  as  I  set  my  foot  on  shore  in  sight  of  the 
British  flag ;  and  the  kind  welcome  of  a  Kingston  family 
added  double  pleasure  to  the  agreeable  week  I  subse- 
quently spent  in  this  place. 

In , manners  and  in  sympathies,  a  sensible  difference 
still  prevails  between  Upper  Canada  and  western  New 
York.  Notwithstanding  the  proximity  of  the  two  coun- 
tries, and  the  increasing  intercourse  between  them,  this 
will  probably  long  continue  to  be  the  case. 

Part  of  the  difference  which  is  felt,  in  crossing  from 
either  side,  may  be  in  idea  only,  and  connected  with 
one's  political  prejudices,  republican  or  monarchical ;  yet 
sensible  differences,  both  in  men  and  women,  exist 
nevertheless.  One  feels  the  de  trop — the  tendency  to 
exaggerate — among  the  men  on  the  one  side,  obtruding 
itself  sometimes  offensively,  especially  in  the  newer  States 
of  the  Union,  and  among  the  newer  people.  An  opposite 
tendency,  and  not  unfrequently  symptoms  of  discontent 
lurking  at  the  corners  of  the  mouth,  are  met  with  along 
the  Canadian  border,  so  often  as  to  arrest  attention  to 
the  circumstance.  But  the  Upper  Canadians  have  in 
themselves,  and  in  their  country,  the  materials  of  a  first- 
rate  people,  if  their  eager  spirit,  anxious  too  speedily  to 
excel,  would  permit  them  to  proceed  steadily  on  their 
way. 

The  Upper  Canadian  women  have  their  character  too. 


YORK. 

Ing  raised 
her  object 
we  neared 
!  cathedral, 
In  many 
ere,  I  have 
ig  the  most 
all  selected 

felt  myself 
sight  of  the 
rston  family 
ek  I  subse- 

ie  difference 
restern  New 
le  two  coun- 
nthem,  this 

rossing  from 
mected  with 
archical ;  yet 
fomen,  exist 
tendency  to 
e,  obtruding 
newer  States 
An  opposite 
of  discontent 
et  with  along 
attention  to 
lians  have  in 
ials  of  a  first- 
loo  speedily  to 
dily  on  their 


A  CANADIAN  WIFE. 


263 


"  I'll  go  over  to  Canada  for  a  wife  when  I  marry,"  said 
a  young  south-shore  farmer  to  his  friend.  "  When  I 
come  home  at  night  sheUl  have  a  nice  blazing  fire  on, 
and  a  clean  kitchen,  and  a  comfortable  supper  for  me  ; 
but  if  I  marry  a  New  Yorker,  it'll  be,  when  I  come  home, 
*  John,  go  down  to  the  well  for  some  water,  to  make  the 
tea  f  or,  '  John,  go  and  bring  some  logs  to  put  on  the 
fire,  to  boil  the  kettle.'  No,  no  ;  a  Canadian  woman's 
the  wife  for  me." 

One  circumstance  which  will  materially  modify  the 
population  on  the  opposite  shores  is  the  large  number  of 
Germans  who  have  settled  in  the  States,  while  the  popu- 
lation of  Upper  Canada  is  almost  wholly  British.  This, 
I  think,  promises  a  more  active  future  to  Canada  than 
the  population  of  New  York  would  give  her. 

I  have  already  drawn  attention  to  some  of  the  places 
in  the  valley  of  the  Mohawk,  where  Germans  especially 
abound.  But  all  along  the  western  region  they  are 
numerous.  In  Buffalo,  the  German  correspondence  is 
so  extensive  that  a  separate  bureau,  as  I  was  informed, 
is  established  at  the  post-oifice  for  German  letters ;  and 
in  the  far  north-western  State  of  Minnesota — the  New 
England  of  the  West — the  annual  message  of  Governor 
Ramsay  to  the  Legislature  for  1850  was  printed  in 
German  as  well  as  English,  which  shows  how  many  of 
that  tongue  are  already  numbered  among  its  adventurous 
inhabitants. 


character  too. 


! 


CHAPTEE  X. 


Kingston. — Soils  of  its  neighbourhood. — Importance  of  agriculture  in 
Canada.— Show  of  the  Upper  Canada  Agricultural  Society. — Pork- 
raising  in  the  provinces. — Adaptation  of  breeds  to  local  circum- 
stances.— Implements  in  the  show-yard. — Infancy  of  root-culture  in 
the  province. — Alleged  difl&culty  in  the  turnip-culture. — Rocky 
Mountain  beans. — Canadian  coflFee. — British  sympathy  with  colonial 
grievances. — Alleged  pusillanimity  of  the  Governor-general. — Farm- 
ing in  Home  district. — Wheat  the  surest  crop  in  Canada  West. — 
Excellence  of  the  winter  wheat. — Best  wheat-belt  round  Lake  Onta- 
rio.— Total  produce  of  Canada  West,  and  average  yield  per  acre. — 
Large  consumption  of  oats. — Less  productiveness  of  the  wheat-crop 
than  in  former  times. — Cause  of  this. — Social  position  of  the  farming 
class  in  Upper  Canada. — Moans  of  improvement  now  in  progress. — 
United  Empire  Loyalists. — Limited  capital  of  the  farming  proprie- 
tors.— Condition  of  the  grants  made  to  the  United  Empire  Loj'al- 
ists. — Renting  of  land,  and  farming  on  shares. — Indian-corn  whisky, 
and  malt. — Extensive  manufacture  of  such  whisky  at  Cincinnati  in 
Ohio. — Use  of  Indian  com  in  the  Canadian  distilleries,  and  of  mixed 
rye  and  pease. — Whisky  from  pease. — Prospects  of  Kingston. — The 
Ten  Thousand  Isles  of  the  River  St  Lawrence. — Descending  the 
rapids. — The  Sault  St  Louis. — Nature  of  this  rapid,  and  of  the 
descent. — Approach  to  Montreal. — Metamoi'phic  limestone  rich  in 
phosphate  of  lime. — Agricultural  value  of  this  rock,  and  of  the 
mineral  phosphate  as  an  article  of  export. — Deposits  of  mineral 
phosphate  in  the  State  of  New  York. — Origin  or  source  of  this 
mineral  phosphate,  and  of  garnet,  graphite,  and  other  minerals  found 
in  crystalline  limestones. — Graphite  and  phosphate  of  lime  in  an 
altered  rock,  evidences  of  the  former  presence  of  organised  bodies. 
— The  crystalline  limestone  interstratified  with  gneiss. — Singular 
contortions  exhibited  by  the  limestone. — Dr  Emmon's  explanation  of 
the  cause. 

Sept.  19. — Kingston,  on  my  arrival,  partook  of  two 
diiFerent  forms  of  excitement — one  in  common  with  the 


NEIGHBOURHOOD  OF  KINGSTON. 


265 


agriculture  in 
society.— Pork- 
local  circum- 
root-culture  in 
ilture.— Rocky 
J  with  colonial 
;cneral.— Farm- 
Janada  West. — 
and  Lake  Onta- 
eld  per  acre. — 
the  wheat-crop 
,  of  the  farming 
in  progress. — 
inning  proprie- 
Empire  Loyal- 
|an-com  whisky, 
,t  Cincinnati  in 
!,  and  of  mixed 
ingston. — The 
escending  the 
lid,  and  of  the 
[estone   rich  in 
;k,  and  of  the 
its  of  mineral 
source  of  this 
minerals  found 
of  lime  in  an 
•ganised  bodies, 
leiss.— Singular 
explanation  of 


look  of  two 
ion  with  the 


whole  province,  arising  out  of  the  political  differences 
and  recent  burnings  at  Montreal ;  the  other — peculiarly 
its  own — connected  with  the  show  of  the  Agricultural 
Society  of  Upper  Canada,  which  was  to  be  held  in  its 
suburbs  during  the  course  of  the  week.  The  interest 
taken  by  all  parties  in  the  political  question  was  great ; 
and  the  comments  on  the  procedure  of  the  Government 
and  the  Governor-general,  numerous  and  free.  The 
influence  of  all  this  was  not  insensible  upon  the  affairs 
of  the  agricultural  meeting,  at  which,  until  almost  the 
last  hour,  his  Excellency's  presence  was  expected.  On 
the  whole,  however,  the  meeting  went  off  very  well,  and 
very  creditably  to  the  agriculture  of  the  province — though 
with  the  introduction  into  the  after-dinner  speeches  of 
more  politics  than  would  have  been  permitted  by  an 
experienced  chairman  on  such  occasions  at  home. 

The  neighbourhood  of  Kingston  is  an  inferior  agri- 
cultural district.  A  thin,  generally  light  soil,  rests  on 
the  Trenton  limestone — a  solid  deposit  of  dark-blue 
fossiliferous  rock,  which  here  skirts  tb*^  northern  shores 
of  the  lake,  and  extends  inland  to  a  considerable  distance. 
The  richest  lands  of  this  division  of  Canada  lie  towards 
the  north  and  west,  a  portion  of  the  province  which  I 
regretted  that  my  previous  arrangements  did  not  permit 
me  to  visit. 

In  Canada,  every  one  is  satisfied  of  the  paramount 
importance  of  the  agricultural  interest ;  a  very  general 
desire  exists,  therefore,  to  advance  it  by  every  reason- 
able or  available  means.  The  superior  class  of  settlers, 
of  whom  so  many  are  scattered  over  Upper  Canada, 
Avill  greatly  facilitate  the  adoption  of  such  means  of 
improvement  as  are  usually  employed,  or  are  easily 
available  by  agricultural  societies. 

The  Agricultural  Society  of  Upper  Canada  had  been 
in  existence  only  three  years,  and  the  excited  state  of 
political  parties  had  retarded  that  general  union,  even 


266 


AGRICULTURAL  SOCIETY. 


It 

if 

!1 


upon  tBe  question  of  rural  improvement,  which,  as 
men's  minds  sober  down,  must  eventually  take  place. 
Still  I  was  agreeably  surprised,  both  at  the  extent  of 
the  preparations  I  saw  making  on  my  arrival,  and  with 
the  appearance  of  the  town  and  of  the  show-yard  on  the 
day  of  the  exhibition.  The  latter  was  not  so  extensive 
nor  so  crowded  as  that  of  Syracuse,  but  much  more 
numerously  attended  by  well-dressed  and  well-behaved 
people,  and  rendered  attractive  by  a  greater  quantity  of 
excellent  stock  and  implements  than  I  had  at  all  anticipated. 

The  best  of  the  stock  was  brought  from  the  western 
part  of  the  province.  Among  them  were  superior  Short- 
horns, a  few  Devons,  and  some  Ayrshires — all  of  pure 
blood.  The  greater  number,  however,  were  crosses, 
which,  as  In  the  States,  are  here  called  grades.  The 
Leicester  sheep  were  very  fine,  and  the  prize  pigs — 
chiefly  Berkshlres — excellent. 

The  pig  husbandry  in  Canada  and  in  the  province  of 
New  Brunswick,  to  be  conducted  economically,  requires 
to  be  somewhat  modified  in  comparison  with  the  method 
adopted  In  Ohio,  and  the  other  large  hog-growing  and 
Indian-corn  producing  States.  Of  the  vast  number 
slaughtered  at  Cincinnati  after  harvest,  the  ages  vary 
from  a  minimum  of  eleven  to  a  maximum  of  nineteen 
months.  They  are  generally  kept  over  one  winter, 
and  packed  before  the  next  commences.  In  the  pro- 
vinces, the  first  difficulty  which  the  settler  has  to  over- 
come is  that  of  laying  in  a  sufficient  stock  of  food  for 
the  long  months  of  winter ;  and  although  the  intro- 
duction of  a  better  husbandry  will  by-and-by  greatly 
lessen  this  difficulty,  yet  at  present  it  is  a  main  object 
with  the  farmer  to  get  the  winter  over  at  as  little  cost  of 
food  as  possible.  The  aim  in  regard  to  pigs  Is,  there- 
fore, to  obtain  a  breed  which  shall  litter  in  April,  and 
can  be  fed  to  produce  a  barrel  of  pork  (196  lb.)  in 
November  or  December  of  the  same  year,  and  thus  to 


IMPLEMENTS  IN  THE  SHOW-YAKD. 


267 


mze  pigs — 


save  all  winter  keep,  except  for  the  breeders.  As  the 
lumber  trade  retires  farther  back,  and  becomes  less 
extensive,  the  large  and  fat  pork  which  was  in  demand 
for  the  lumberers  becomes  unsaleable,  and  a  new  form 
of  the  article — such  as  a  civilised  community  are  likely 
permanently  to  consume — is  necessary  to  be  produced. 

Considerations  of  this  kind  render  it  necessary  to  look 
at  stock  in  different  countries  with  a  differently  instructed 
eye ;  and  the  opinions  of  a  committee  in  offering,  and 
of  a  judge  in  awarding,  prizes,  must  be  determined,  not 
so  much  by  the  abstract  excellence  of  this  or  that 
animal  or  breed,  as  by  its  special  adaptation  to  local 
circumstances,  and  to  the  purposes  for  which  it  is  reared. 

Among  the  implements,  which  considerably  exceeded 
in  number  and  variety  what  is  often  to  be  seen  at  the 
shows  of  the  Highland  and  Agricultural  Society  of 
Scotland,  there  were  many  excellent  ploughs,  harrows, 
cultivators,  &c.,  manufactured  in  the  province.  Straw 
and  corn-stalk  cutters,  and  corn-shellers,  were  in  con- 
siderable numbers;  but  an  English  visitor  would  be 
struck  by  the  want  of  drill-machines,  and  root-cutters, 
and  grain-crushers,  now  so  abundant  at  our  British 
shows.  A  few  of  the  former,  for  drilling  wheat,  were 
the  only  implements  of  the  kind  which  were  to  be  seen. 
The  roots  exhibited — turnips,  carrots,  beet,  mangold- 
wurzel,  &c. — were  all  large  and  fine,  showing  the 
aptitude  of  the  climate  and  soil  to  this  culture.  But 
here,  as  elsewhere  in  North  America,  the  root-culture  is 
still  in  its  infancy.  A  rich  virgin  soil,  producing  crops 
for  many  years  almost  spontaneously,  gave  no  stimulus 
to  the  preparation  and  preservation  of  manure  among 
the  first  settlers ;  while  the  ready  sale  for  wheat,  and 
the  difficulty  of  procuring  hay  for  large  winter  stock, 
have  hitherto  prevented  the  attention  of  the  existing 
farmers  from  being  turned  to  the  rearing  of  cattle. 

Besides  the  fly — which,  as  with  us,  commits  here  also 


268 


ROCKY  MOUNTAIN   BEAN. 


gi'eat  ravages  upou  the  young  turnip — drought  is  said 
to  prevail  in  this  province  more  frequently  than  at 
home,  at  the  time  for  sowing  the  seed.  There  is 
greater  difficulty  also,  it  is  alleged,  in  keeping  the  roots 
during  winter  than  with  as.  Such  difficulties,  however, 
appear  more  formidable  at  first ;  experience  generally 
shows  how  they  are  to  be  overcome.  The  last-men- 
tioned difficulty  has  often  been  put  to  me  in  the  pro- 
vince of  New  Brunswick,  chiefly  by  persons  new  to 
the  turnip.  Yet  even  there  I  have  met  many  practical 
farmers,  who  had  fairly  entered  upon  the  culture,  and 
had  experienced  its  benefits  in  the  winter-feeding  of 
their  stock,  to  whom  the  preservation  of  their  turnips, 
in  cellars  of  a  properly  adjusted  temperature,  had  pre- 
sented no  difficulty  whatever. 

Among  the  horticultural  productions  were  two  which 
were  new  to  me.  One  was  the  Rocky  Mountain  bean, 
which  had  pods  from  12  to  18  inches  in  length,  growing 
in  pairs,  and  about  the  thickness  of  a  common  French 
bean.  The  seed  has  the  appearance  of  a  small  kidney- 
bean.  The  other  was  labelled  Canadian  Coffee.  It  is  a 
species  of  pea  growing  in  a  small  inflated  pod.  It  has  the 
flavour  of  a  pea,  with  a  bitterish  after-taste,  and  when 
roasted,  has  much  of  the  odour  and  taste  of  coffee. 
It  grew  readily  and  ripened  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Toi'onto,  and  may  possibly  come  to  be  economically 
important. 

On  the  whole,  as  I  have  said,  this  Kingston  show 
was  very  creditable  to  the  province  of  Upper  Canada. 
The  thousands  of  people  who  came  to  it,  the  stock  and 
implements  exhibited,  the  respectable  appearance,  the 
orderly  behaviour,  the  comfortable  looks  and  cheerful 
faces  of  both  male  and  female,  spoke  for  a  state  of 
things  at  least  not  very  unflourishing.  The  British 
blood  is  purer  in  Upper  Canada  than  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  where,  as  I  have  already  remarked,  Dutch  and 


iH 


HOME  SYMPATHY  WITH   THE  COLONIES. 


26t) 


German  settlers  occupy  large  portions  of  the  territory, 
and  crowd  into  the  towns ;  but  in  both  there  is  enough 
of  its  influence  and  energy  seen  everywhere  to  make  a 
h()me-born  man  proud  of  his  country  and  his  people. 
Faces,  persons,  dispositions — all  look  like  home  over 
again.  The  most  pushing  and  impatient  of  the  colonial- 
born  little  imagine  how  very  much  they  resemble  the 
tens  of  thousands  of  men  at  home  who  restlessly  gnaw 
the  bit  of  restraint — by  which  order  can  alone  be 
secured,  and  leisure  obtained  for  that  cautious  and 
steady  progress  by  which  advances,  economical  and 
political,  which  all  consider  desirable,  may  be  safely 
made  and  successively  rendered  secure.  I  venture  to 
say  for  John  Bull,  and  Sandy  too,  that  there  is  not 
a  single  British  colony  to  which  it  does  not  delight 
them  to  hear  that  their  brothers  and  cousins  are  going, 
or,  having  gone,  to  learn  that  they  are  prospering  in  it. 
Nor  is  there  not  a  single  real  grievance  with  which  any 
of  these  colonies  may  be  afflicted  that  does  not  meet 
with  their  ready  sympathy,  and,  whatever  party  may 
be  in  power,  their  ready  co-operation,  by  all  lawful 
means,  to  secure  redress. 

I  introduce  these  observations,  as  the  reader  will 
readily  understand,  in  reference  to  topics  which  I  often 
heard  discussed  during  my  stay  in  Canada.  At  King- 
ston, the  presence  of  his  Excellency  the  Governor  was 
looked  for  by  many ;  and  the  number  of  guests  at  the 
Society's  dinner  was  probably  very  much  fewer  in 
consequence  of  his  absence.  Various  comments,  of 
course,  were  made,  according  to  the  feelings  and  wishes 
of  parties,  upon  this  absence.  His  friends  were  disap- 
pointed, as  they  were  ready  to  support  him.  His 
enemies  called  it  pusillanimity,  and  used  many  other 
hard  words.  For  my  own  part,  I  knew  too  little,  at  the 
time,  of  the  :emper  of  the  people,  to  permit  me  to  form 
an  opinion  as  to  the  propriety  of  his  coming  or  staying 


; 


270 


CONDUCT  OF  THE  GOVERNOR-GENERAL. 


away.  I  was  from  the  first,  however,  inclined  to  regard 
the  Governor's  movements  as  impelled  chiefly  by  a 
prudent  caution,  and  all  I  afterwards  learned  or  saw 
tended  to  confirm  and  strengthen  this  first  impression. 
What  matters  the  personal  bravery  of  the  Governor 
of  a  colony,  compared  with  his  personal  prudence  ?  To 
satisfy  his  partisans,  or  to  disprove  the  allegations  of 
his  opponents,  is  he  to  place  himself  in  circumstances 
where  disturbance  may  occur,  the  public  peace  be 
endangered,  lives  possibly  sacrificed,  and  feelings  of 
bitterness  awakened  which  he  may  never  be  able  to 
allay  ?  The  Annexation  party  in  Canada  would  justly 
have  blamed  his  rashness,  his  imprudence,  and  his  unfit- 
ness to  preside  over  a  constitutional  government,  had 
they  succeeded,  by  their  taunts,  in  compelling  him  into 
any  ejquivocal  position. 

The  farming  about  Toronto — in  the  Home  district, 
which  I  was  unable  to  visit — is  said  to  be  better  as  to 
implements,  stock,  and  handiwork,  than  in  any  other 
part  of  Canada.  The  surface-soil  in  this  district  is 
generally  sandy,  and  covered  with  pine;  but  it  rests,  at 
a  depth  of  10  to  18  inches,  on  a  clay  often  blue  in 
colour,  and  burning  to  a  white  brick.  Such  a  soil 
is  easily  tilled  at  first,  and  has  the  means  of  permanent 
improvement  below. 

Wheat  is  still  the  surest  crop  in  Canada  West, 
though,  in  the  lower  or  moister  grounds,  it  is  very 
subject  to  rust.  This  has  been  particularly  the  case 
during  the  last  ten  years,  hundreds  of  acres  having 
sometimes  been  left  uncut  on  account  of  this  disease. 

Winter  wheat  is  preferred,  sown  in  September,  be- 
cause it  leaves  less  to  do  in  the  short  spring,  is  ripe  a 
fortnight  earliei'  than  spring  wheat,  and  brings  3d.  to 
6d.  currency  a  bushel  more  in  the  market.  It  is  this 
winter  wheat  which  the  Rochester  and  Oswego  millers 
covet,  because  they  can  get  it  earlier  in  the  season  than 


#" 


PRODUCE  OP  CANADA  WEST. 


271 


the  western  wheat,  and  because  the  flour  it  makes  is  less 
apt  to  sour  at  sea. 

The  best  samples  of  wheat  are  grown  on  a  belt  of 
some  twelve  miles  broad,  which  skirts  the  lake  from 
Niagara  round  as  far  as  the  town  of  Cobourg,  which  is 
about  a  hundred  miles  west  of  Kingston.  The  land  on 
this  belt  is  rolling,  and  generally  light,  loamy,  and 
capable  of  being  ploughed  with  light  horses.  Beyond 
this  belt,  in  every  direction,  wheat  is  more  subject  to 
rust.  Winter  wheat  cannot  be  grown  with  equal 
certainty,  and  spring  Avheat,  therefore,  is  generally 
sown.  From  what  I  have  heard,  I  think  it  not 
unlikely  that  thorough-drainage  may  eventually  cure  all 
this. 

The  whole  produce  of  Canada  West,  in  1828,  and  the 
average  yield  per  hnperial  acre,  are  represented  in  the 
following  table : — 


Area  in  eiilttvation. 

Total  produce. 

Average  produce 

In  acres. 

In  bushels. 

per  imperial  acre. 

Wheat, 

693,695 

7,558,773 

12f  bush 

Barley, 

29,324 

619,727 

m  -. 

Oats, 

285,671 

7,055,734 

24f      ... 

Rye,        . 

38,452 

446,293 

IH      ... 

Indian  corn. 

61,997 

1,137,555 

21|      ... 

Buckwheat, 

26,653 

432,573 

16i      ... 

Potatoes, 

66,796 

4,751,231 

84 

Though  the  largest  breadth  of  land  is  under  wheat,  it 
will  be  seen  by  the  above  numbers  that  oats  and 
potatoes  are  staple  articles  of  food.  This  arises,  in 
part,  from  the  climate  being  more  generally  pro- 
pitious to  these  crops,  and  in  part  from  the  large 
proportion  of  persons  of  Scottish  descent  who  are  found 
among  the  inhabitants  of  the  province. 

The  wheat  midge  has  not  yet  been  sensibly  felt  in 
Canada  West ;  still,  the  wheat  crop  is  by  no  means  so 
sure  as  it  used  to  be,  and,  as  one  consequence,  larger 
numbers  are  returning  to  Indian  corn,  which,  twenty 


i\    I 


\  I 


272 


FAILING  QKOWTIl   OP   WIIKAT. 


years    ago,   used   to    be   cultivated    in    much    larger 
proportiou  than  now. 

But  it  cannot  surprise  any  Old  Country  farmer  that 
the  wheat  crops  should  become  less  valuable,  even  on 
the  best  of  land,  where  so   little  has  been  done  to 
conserve  the  natural  capabilities  of  the  soil.     In  Prince 
Edward's  District — a  peninsula  lying  immediately  to  the 
west  of  Kingston,  between  the  Bay  of  Quints  and  the 
lake — the  land  has,  in  some  places,  been  cropped  with 
wheat  for  fifty  years,  without  any  other  manure  than  a 
ton  of  gypsum  a-year  applied  to  a  whole  farm.      In 
other  places,  a  similar  system  has  been  followed.     Can  it 
be  wondered  at,  then,  that   here,  as  elsewhere — from 
this  among  other  causes — the  wheat-producing  region 
should  be  gradually  retiring  inland,  or  farther  to   the 
west,;  and  that,  as  in  the   State   of  New  York,  the 
agriculture  of  the  whole  province  should,  by  degrees,  be 
materially  altering  ?     It  is  the  multiplied  and  prolonged 
modes  of  procedure  of  its  individual  citizens  that,  in 
agriculture  as  in  the  arts,    ultimately  determines    the 
nature   and  extent  of  the    relations,  economical    and 
commercial,  which  one  country  bears  to  another.    These, 
in  the  case  of  the  North  American  provinces  and  States, 
are  leading  to   a  condition   of  agricultural  production 
which  is  of  the  greatest  possible  interest  to  British  land- 
owners and  land-cultivators. 

Little  knowledge  of  improved  agriculture  has  hitherto 
been  diffused  in  Upper  Canada ;  and  it  is,  as  yet,  among 
practical  men,  held  in  little  esteem.  In  revenge,  the 
farming  class  are  not,  as  a  body,  regarded  with  much 
estimation  by  the  other  classes  of  society.  They  do  not 
assume  their  proper  position  among  a  community  where, 
if  they  only  knew  how  to  use  it,  all  political  power  is,  in 
reality,  in  their  hands.  The  knowledge  which  they  despise 
would  be  the  means,  not  only  of  enabling  them  to  wield 
this  power,  but  of  placing  themselves  in  that  position  iu 


PU00RE8S  OP  KNOWLEIXJE. 


273 


the  Bocial  scale  from  v^hlch  their  present  contempt  of 
knowledge  debars  them.  Still,  the  efforts  now  making 
cannot  fail  to  do  good.  The  thousand  pounds  given 
in  prizes  at  Kingston  had  the  effect  of  stimulating 
many,  and  of  awakening  some ;  while  the  things  exhi- 
bited in  the  show-yard  must  have  led  many,  un  their 
return  home,  to  look  with  a  new  eye  upon  their  own 
stuck  and  tools  and  produce.  The  Society  publishes, 
as  yet,  no  Transactions ;  but  a  weekly  Journal  issued 
under  their  patronage  promises  to  spread  much  useful 
information.  And  the  lectures  delivered  from  time  to 
time  by  their  Secretary,  in  the  country  districts,  must 
load  to  thoughts  of  change,  and  to  improvements  in 
practice ;  while  the  introduction,  now  in  progress,  of 
scientific  agriculture  as  a  branch  of  Instruction  into  the 
Canadian  colleges,  and  of  elementary  lessons  on  the 
principles  of  agriculture  into  the  schools  of  the  rural 
districts,  will  lay  a  solid  foundation  for  those  more  general 
ameliorations  by  which  the  practices  of  the  next 
generation  are  to  repair  the  evils  produced  by  those  of 
the  past. 

Among  the  sources  of  evil  and  retardation  to  Upper 
Canadian  agriculture,  the  President,  in  his  address, 
stated  the  occupation  of  too  much  land  by  individual 
farm-proprietors  to  be  one  of  the  most  injurious.  This 
is  especially  the  case  in  reference  to  the  descendants  of 
what  are  now  generally  called  the  U.  E.  Loyalists. 
At  the  close  of  the  first  American  war,  many  persons 
emigrated  from  the  United  States,  not  only  to  Nova 
Scotia,  but  also  to  Upper  Canada.  They  were  kindly 
received,  and  liberally  dealt  with  by  the  British 
Government.  All  the  land  on  the  St  Lawrence  above 
the  French  settlements,  up  to  and  around  the  Bay  of 
Quintd,  was  divided  into  to  ./nships ;  the  settlers  called 
the    United  Empire  Loyalists    were    placed    upon    it. 

VOL.  I.  S 


274 


GRANTS  TO  THE  U.   E.   LOYALISTS. 


•I  !( 


Farming  utensils,  building  materials,  and  two  years' 
provisions  were  supplied  to  them ;  and,  besides  the  land 
given  to  themselves,  allotments  of  200  acres  were 
granted  to  each  of  their  childrev.  on  attaining  the  age  of 
twenty-one  years.  This  has  thrown  into  the  hands  of 
persons  of  small  capital,  and  little  agricultural  knowledge 
or  pecuniary  means,  larger  tracts  of  land  than  they  have 
been  able  beneficially  to  cultivate.  Had  those  grants 
been  made  in  farms  of  100,  or  even  50  acres  each,  it 
would,  in  the  judgment  of  the  President,  have  been 
better  for  the  province,  and  for  the  actual  condition  of 
its  practical  husbandry. 

This,  we  should  say  at  once,  might  probably  have 
been  the  case.  But  the  argument  appears  to  have  a 
better  foundation  than  could  be  gathered  by  a  stranger 
as  the  words  fell  from  the  lips  of  the  speaker,  when  we 
consider  the  extent  of  land  granted  to  the  U.  E. 
Loyalists,  and  how  little  has,  as  yet,  been  done  to  a  large 
proportion  of  that  which  was  assigned  to  their  children. 

In  the  authorised  Statistical  Report  of  the  Canadian 
Board,  (Montreal,  1849,)  these  lands  are  described  as 
consisting  of : — 

Acres 

Located,         .  .  .  150,800 

Unlocated,     .  .  .  321,950 


Other  lands, 


2,734,239 


Total  described,  .  3,206,987 

I  do  not  know  exactly  what  distinction  is  intended 
between  the  second  and  third  quantities  of  these  lands  in 
the  above  enumeration ;  but  if  it  be  the  case  that,  of 
the  3^  millions  of  acres  granted,  only  150  thousand  are 
located — by  which  I  understand  actually  under  culti- 
vation— it  does  seem  as  if  the  original  benevolent 
intentions  of  the  Home  Government  had  been  greatly 
interfered  with,  and  rendered  abortive. 

A  large  proportion  of   the  later  grants,  I  believe, 


LETTING  OF  FAEMS. 


275 


never  came  into  the  possession  of  those  for  whom  they 
were  intended.  The  claims,  prospective  rights,  or  war- 
rants of  the  children  of  the  loyalists,  for  200  acres  each, 
were  in  great  numhers  transferred  to  other  parties  for 
small  sums  of  money,  and  thus  came  into  the  hands  of 
persons — often  speculators — who  have  not  themselves 
hitherto  possessed  the  ability  or  the  intention  to  bring 
them  into  cultivation. 

Such  unlooked-for  occurrences  as  this  are  to  be  classed 
among  the  other  unanticipated  consequences  which  have 
followed  from  grants  of  land  made  in  Canada,  often  with 
the  best  intentions — consequences  to  be  regretted,  and 
which  may  retard,  but,  it  is  consolatory  to  think,  cannot 
prevent  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  this  rapidly  rising 
colony. 

The  land  in  Upper  Canada  is  generally  cultivated  by 
its  owners,  as  in  the  United  States.  In  the  Gore  Dis- 
trict, which  lies  at  the  head  of  Lake  Ontario,  and  con- 
tains land  of  the  best  quality,  only  about  one  in  twenty 
is  let  to  a  tenant.  In  the  newer  settled  districts,  the 
system  of  letting  in  shares  is  most  common  ;  if  the  land- 
lord gives  only  the  land,  he  has  a  third — if  he  finds  stork 
also,  he  gets  two-thirds.  In  the  older  settled  districts, 
money-rents  are  common,  and  leases  of  seven  years  are 
granted,  with  restrictive  conditions  as  to  cropping.  Good 
wheat-land,  not  within  ten  or  twelve  miles  of  a  town, 
lets  at  two  dollars — about  2^  bushels  an  acre. 

In  the  table  given  in  a  preceding  page,  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  quantity  of  barley  grown  in  Upper  Canada — 
half  a  million  of  bushels — is  comparatively  small.  The 
produce  of  this  grain  is  not,  however,  as  in  Great  Brir 
tain,  any  test  of  the  amount  of  fennented  liquors,  and 
especially  of  ardent  spirits,  which  are  manufactured  and 
consumed.  I  have  already  stated,  in  reference  to  the 
Indian  corn  of  the  Western  States,  that  distillation  was 
one  of  the  outlets  by  which  the  excessive  produce  of  this 


\ 


I    m 


276 


INDIAN-CORN  WHISKY. 


grain  had  hitherto  been  disposed  of.  Cincinnati,  in 
Ohio,  of  which  I  have  spoken  as  the  great  centre  of  the 
packing  business,  is  also  the  great  centre  of  the  whisky 
manufacture.  It  is  the  great  whisky  mart  of  the  West, 
and  probably  larger  stocks  of  whisky  are  to  be  found  at 
one  time  in  that  city  than  in  any  other  market  in  the 
world.  The  whole  quantity  produced  by  the  distilleries 
of  this  city,  or  brought  into  it  from  more  or  less  distant 
distilleries,  is  about  1000  barrels,  of  forty  gallons  each, 
per  day,  or  14,500,000  gallons  in  a  year.  The  quantity 
shipped  off  in  the  state  of  whisky — chiefly  down  the 
Mississippi  —  is  estimated  at  11,000,000  of  gallons, 
while  about  1,000,000  gallons  more  are  converted  into 
alcohol,  and  disposed  of  to  the  Atlantic  States.  All 
this  whisky  is  manufactured  from  Indian  corn ;  and 
even,  for  the  mashing,  barley  is  not  necessary,  as 
sprouted  Indian  com  makes  a  malt  as  serviceable  to  the 
distiller  as  that  from  barley. 

Id  Canada,  which  is  not  so  much  of  an  Indian-corn 
country,  this  grain  is  also  used  in  the  distilleries, 
although  not  so  exclusively  as  in  the  Western  States, 
where  this  grain  is  a  drug.  I  had  the  opportunity  of 
conversing  with  the  intelligent  and  enterprising  owner 
of  a  large  distillery  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Kingston, 
who  informed  me  that  he  used  chiefly  rye  and  Indian 
com,  but  sometimes  j>eaM  also — all  ground  up  together. 
Two  bushels  of  barley  malt  were  sufficient  for  a  bushel 
of  crushed  rye — Indian  com  requires  four  bushels  to  one. 
When  barley  is  scarce,  a  larger  proportion  of  rye  can  be 
used.  I  was  most  interested  in  the  use  of  pease,  which, 
from  their  composition,  one  would  not  expect  to  be  well 
fitted  either  to  give  a  good  sample  or  a  large  return  of 
spirit.  He  informed  me,  however,  that  the  yield  was 
tolerably  good,  but  the  quality  inferior  to  that  from 
Indian  com — the  main  objection  being,  that  the  spirit 
carries  the  flavour  of  the  pea  along  with  it. 


PROSPECTS  OP  KINGSTON. 


277 


Though  Kingston  possesses,  in  its  happy  position,  a 
certain  assurance  of  great  future  prosperity,  its  progress 
vas  somewhat  checked  by  the  removal  of  the  seat  of 
Government  to  Montreal,  upon  the  union  of  the  pro- 
vinces. Placed  at  the  head  of  the  navigation  of  the  St 
Lawrence,  at  the  junction  of  the  Rideau  Canal  with 
Lake  Ontario,  and  with  direct  access  to  the  commerce 
of  the  States  and  upper  lakes  by  steam-boats  and  rail- 
ways, it  will  grow  with  the  general  growth  of  Canada, 
especially  with  the  settlement  of  the  basin  of  the  Ottawa, 
and  the  increase  of  the  carrying  trade  of  the  great  river, 
till  it  will  compete  on  at  least  equal  t*>rms  with  Roches- 
ter and  Oswego,  on  the  south  side  of  tue  lake.  It  is  not, 
as  some  fancy,  feverish  energy  and  over-speculation  that 
are  required,  but  a  patient  trust  in  the  natural  develop- 
ment of  the  resources  of  the  country,  and  a  prudent  and 
cautious  use  of  the  new  opportunities  of  advancing  it 
which  every  succeeding  year  presents. 

Sept.  22. — Leaving  my  kind  and  hospitable  friends  in 
Kingston,  I  embarked  for  Montreal  at  7^  A.  M.  We  had 
neither  rain  nor  fog  in  sailing  among  the  Thousand  Isles, 
but  the  absence  of  the  sun  robbed  this  part  of  the  voyage 
of  half  its  beauty,  t  was  reminded  of  the  Ten  Thousand 
Islands  of  the  Swedish  Lake  Maeler,  and  of  the  less 
numerous  islets  of  our  own  Loch  Lomond,  as  we  glided 
rapidly  down  the  stream ;  but  not  a  gleam  of  sunshine 
descended  to  give  the  Canadian  scenery  the  bright 
sparkle  which  1  have  seen  lending  so  much  joyfulness 
to  these  European  lakes.  A  quiet  beauty,  nevertheless, 
suffused  the  river,  and,  with  agreeable  and  instructive 
society  on  board,  the  day  passed  pleasantly.  Darkness 
had  already  come  on  for  more  than  an  hour  before  we 
stopped  for  the  night  at  Coteau-du-Lac,  at  the  foot  of 
Lake  St  Francis,  and  160  miles  below  Kingston.  We 
had,  during  the  day,  descended  several  rapids,  which 
can  only  be  passed  by  ascending  vessels  through  the 


flH^I 

1 

J^M^H- 

HHi 

9H< 

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11 

278 


IIUNNING  THE  RAPIDS. 


short  canals  which  have  been  constructed  for  the  purpose, 
near  the'  banks  of  the  river.  But  the  most  formidable 
of  the  river  rapids  were  yet  to  come ;  and  it  was  to 
obtain  daylight  for  the  passage  of  these  that  we  pulled 
up  at  the  foot  of  Lake  St  Francis. 

Sept.  23. — At  four  in  the  morning  we  were  again 
under  weigh,  and  most  of  the  passengers  on  deck,  to 
witness  the  running  of  the  three  formidable  rapids, 
which  occur  within  the  next  sixteen  miles.  The  descent 
was  very  interesting.  The  rapid  current,  the  often  narrow 
channel,  and  the  care  in  steering,  all  told  of  difficulty  in 
the  passages ;  and  when  one  looked  at  the  large  ship, 
dodging,  as  it  were,  among  the  shallows  and  headlands, 
it  appeared  really  wonderful  that  accidents  should  so 
rarely  happen.  At  the  foot  of  the  cascades  we  entered 
Lake  St  Louis,  where  the  Ontario  from  the  north  falls 
into  the  St  Lawrence ;  and  at  seven  we  reached  Lachine, 
in  the  island  of  Montreal.  Here  most  of  the  passengers 
landed,  and  proceeded  by  railway  nine  miles  to  the  city. 
The  really  dangerous  rapids,  however,  were  still  below 
us,  and  as  the  boat  was  about  to  pass  them,  I  and  a  few 
others  remained  on  board,  with  the  captain's  permission, 
till  the  boat  arrived  at  Montreal. 

This  was  certainly  the  most  striking  part  of  the 
voyage ;  and  it  is  one  which  a  stranger  visiting  Mon- 
treal ought  not  to  allow  himself  to  be  prevented  from 
performing.  Of  the  rapids  between  Lachine  and  Mon- 
treal the  most  formidable  and  dangerous,  is  that  of  the 
Sault  St  Louis.  The  descent  of  this  rapid,  in  so  large 
a  vessel,  created  in  my  mind  a  feeling  of  surprise.  In 
descending  the  Tobique,  in  my  bark-canoe,  with  a  single 
Indian  polling  and  fending  off,  in  quick  and  narrow  and 
rocky  rapids,  I  could  not  help  admiring  the  nice  tact,  the 
instinctive  perception  as  it  were,  with  which  a  gentle 
touch  of  the  pole  on  the  threatening  rock,  at  the  proper 
moment,  kept  all  safe.     Here,  on  the  St  Lawrence,  the 


THE  SAULT  ST  LOUIS. 


279 


same  tact  appeared,  but  with  a  greatly  superior  intellec- 
tual skill,  in  handling  and  guiding  a  large  boat  with  a 
heavy  cargo  through  a  crooked  channel,  where  the 
slightest  oversight,  for  a  single  moment,  would  cast  all 
upon  the  rocky  shallows. 

Let  the  reader  fancy  to  himself  a  ledge  of  rocks  run- 
ning across  the  river,  over  which  the  water  has  a  distinct 
fall — to  the  eye  appearing  to  be  somewhere  between  six 
and  ten  feet — into  deep  water  below.  Through  this 
ledge  is  a  narrow  channel  of  deep  water,  where  the 
rock  has  been  torn  away,  and  through  which  the  river 
rushes  with  great  velocity.  Below  this  ledge,  at  a  short 
distance,  is  a  second  ledge  of  rock,  over  which  the  water 
falls,  and  through  which,  as  in  the  case  of  the  first,  a 
natural  gap  or  sluice-way  exists.  Between  these  two 
ledges  deep  water  exists,  but  the  openings  of  the  two 
are  not  opposite  to  each  other,  or  in  the  same  line. 
You  must  descend  the  one,  then  turn  sharp  in  the  deep 
water  along  the  foot  of  the  first  ledge,  and  at  the  proper 
time  turn  sharp  again  to  go  through  the  other.  The  chan- 
nel is  a  true  zigzag,  and  to  sail  along  this  letter  Z  in  the 
face  of  a  strong  current,  and  a  heavy  pressure  of  water, 
requires  a  degree  of  skill  and  coolness  in  the  captain,  and 
of  mobility  in  the  ship,  which  it  requires  a  little  considera- 
tion fully  to  realise.  Four  men  at  the  wheel,  and  six  at 
the  tiller,  to  guard  against  accidents,  steered  us  safely 
down ;  and  it  was  beautiful  to  see  with  what  graceful 
ease  and  exactness  the  prow  of  the  long  vessel  turned 
itself  to  suit  the  sudden  turns  of  the  rocky  channel. 
We  reached  Montreal  about  nine  o'clock,  soon  after 
which,  a  pelting  rain  came  on — the  first  serious  fall 
of  rain  I  had  yet  encountered  on  the  American  con- 
tinent. 

The  approach  to  Montreal  from  the  river  reminded 
me  of  the  approach  to  Leith  from  the  river  Forth.  The 
town  of  Montreal  on  the  river  bank,  and  the  hill  of 


280 


METAMORPHIC   LIMESTONE 


Mont  Royal  rising  behind  with  a  faint  resemblance  to 
Arthur's  Seat,  sent  the  heart  home  to  more  familiar 
scenes,  and  almost  secured  beforehand  for  the  stranger- 
city  an  interest  in  its  affections. 

In  descending  the  St  Lawrence  from  Kingston,  the 
somewhat  naked  and  rocky  limestone  country  of  that 
part  of  Upper  Canada  continues,  till  we  have  passed  the 
Thousand  Isles.  Below  this  the  banks  are  less  rocky, 
and  most  of  the  way  down  to  Montreal  consist  of  a 
light-coloured  drift,  which  yields  in  general,  I  should 
think,  only  an  indifferent  soil.  This  drift  rests  upon, 
and  is  probably  in  great  part  formed  from,  the  Potsdam 
sandstone  and  calciferous  sand-rock  of  the  New  York 
geologists  —  being  the  lowest  portions  of  the  Lower 
Silurian  rocks.  These  rocks,  where  they  occur  in  other 
part^  of  North  America,  produce  in  general  inferior  soils. 

The  most  interesting  geological  fact,  bearing  upon  the 
practice  of  agriculture,  which  fell  under  my  observation 
in  this  part  of  my  tour,  is  the  occurrence  over  a  large 
part  of  Canada  of  a  deposit  of  metamorphic  limestone, 
which  is  unusually  rich  in  phosphate  of  lime.  This 
limestone  is  subordinate  to,  and  interstratified  with,  beds 
of  porphyritic  and  syenitic  gneiss,  which  form  a  long 
ridge  of  high-land,  dipping  beneath  not  only  all  the 
Silurian  strata,  but  also  under  the  copper-bearing  beds 
of  Lake  Superior,  which  are  beneath  the  Silurian.  Both 
the  limestone  and  the  gneiss  are  probably  highly  altered 
members  of  the  older  Cambrian  series. 

This  ridge  of  altered  rocks  extends,  as  a  prolonged 
high-land,  in  a  north-east  and  south-west  direction,  from 
the  west  of  Labrador  to  the  Ottowa,  running  nearly 
parallel  to  the  St  Lawrence,  and  at  a  distance  north  of 
that  river  of  from  twelve  to  twenty  miles.  Near 
Bytown  on  the  Ottowa  the  limestone  appears  in  great 
force,  and  from  that  point  the  ridge  of  mixed  rocks 
ranges  nearly  due  west  to  the  shores  of  Lake  Huron. 


RICH   IN   PHOSPHATE  OP  LIME. 


281 


Near  the  point  where  it  crosses  the  Ottowa,  a  branch 
of  this  formation  forks  off  towards  the  south,  spreads 
over  a  considerable  extent  of  country  between  the 
Ottowa  and  the  head  of  the  St  Lawrence,  crosses  this 
river  at  the  Thousand  Isles,  among  which  the  syenitic 
rocks  prevail,  with  intermixed  crystalline  limestones, 
and  passes  into  the  northern  counties  of  New  York, 
where  it  is  extensively  developed.  It  is  there  coloured 
among  the  primary  rocks  of  the  State,  in  the  published 
geological  maps  of  Mr  Hall  and  Professor  Emmons. 

This  rock,  like  the  altered  limestones  in  most  other 
localities,  contains  imbedded  in  it  various  simple  minerals 
in  greater  or  less  quantity ;  and  among  these  apatite,  or 
phosphate  of  lime  in  grains  and  green  crystals,  is  some- 
times very  abundant.  Mr  Logan,  Provincial  Geologist 
for  the  Canadas,  in  his  Keport  for  1845-46,  p.  94, 
has  mentioned  several  localities  where  the  mineral  phos- 
phate of  lime  is  especially  plentiful  ;*  and  Mr  Hunt, 
chemist  to  the  survey,  with  whom  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
conversing  upon  the  subject,  assured  me  that  in  many 
places  this  mineral  formed  a  tenth  part  of  the  whole  rock. 

One  economical  fact  is  certain — that  the  existence  of 
such  a  limestone  is  of  undoubted  value  to  the  neighbour- 
liood  in  which  it  exists,  where  it  can  be  readily  quarried 
and  burned  for  lime,  to  be  used  in  agricultural  opera- 
tions ;  and  that  it  is  of  equal  value  as  an  article  of  export 
for  agricultural  purposes,  where  facilities  for  shipment 
or  other  cheap  means  of  transport  exist.  Such  a  lime- 
stone rock,  in  most  easily  accessible  parts  of  Great 
Britain,  would  be  as  sure  a  source  of  permanent  wealth 
as  a  mine  of  Californian  gold. 

Another  economical  point  is  worthy  of  inquiry.  Does 
this  mineral  phosphate,  in  any  of  these  localities,  occur 

•  At  BlasdcUs  Mills,  on  the  Qateneau,  at  the  Calumet  Slide,  and 
above  the  head  of  Moor's  Slide,  near  the  line  between  Ross  and 
Westmeath.    Pi-obably  many  other  localities  are  now  known. 


V 


PHOSPHATE  OF  LIME  ABUNDANT. 

in  masses  so  Large,  or  so  readily  separable  from  the 
common  limestone,  that  it  could  be  economically 
extracted,  and  brought  in  a  pure  state  into  the 
raarket?  If  so,  it  would  prove  valuable  as  an  article 
of  shipment  to  Europe,  and  would  provide  another 
available  resource  to  the  high-farmed  lands  of  Great 
Britain.  Upon  the  exhausted  wheat-soils  of  Canada, 
properly  prepared  and  applied,  its  use  would  be  invalu- 
able. An  inquiry  into  this  point  is  deserving  of  the 
attention  of  the  Canadian  Legislature,  with  a  view  to 
the  good  of  the  province ;  and  of  individual  landowners 
along  the  outcrop  of  this  rock,  with  a  view  to  their  own 
individual  profit. 

I  think  it  the  more  likely  that  some  localities  may  be 
found  in  Canada  where  this  mineral  phosphate  will 
present  itself  in  sufficient  quantity  to  admit  of  being 
profitably  extracted,  because,  during  my  subsequent 
residence  in  the  State  of  New  York,  I  was  assured  by 
Professor  Emmons  of  Albany,  one  of  the  State  geolo- 
gists, that  he  had  met  with  it  in  several  places  in  that 
State  where  he  thought  it  might  be  so  extracted.  In 
the  white  metamorphic  limestones  of  Essex,  Jefferson, 
and  St  Lawrence  Counties,  into  which,  as  I  have  already 
said,  the  Canadian  limestone  extends,  he  had  so  observed 
it;  and  at  Rossie,  in  the  last  of  these  counties,  he  thought 
a  man  might  in  some  places  pick  out  a  hundredweight 
a-day.  Among  the  magnetic  iron  ores  also,  in  the 
township  of  Peru,  near  Lake  Champlain,  he  informed 
me  that  it  sometimes  occurs  in  equal  bulk  with  the  ore 
itself,  and  that,  by  washing  or  other  mechanical  means, 
a  ton  a-day  might  be  collected  in  some  localities. 

In  the  interest  of  general  scientific  agriculture,  inde- 
pendent of  individual  or  local  profit,  it  is  desirable  that 
the  accuracy  of  such  statements,  and  the  possible  avail- 
ability of  these  and  similar  deposits,  should  be  speedily 
investigated. 


'*~ia 


MINERALS  IN   METAMORPHIC  ROCKS. 


283 


Speculations  have  been  hazarded  at  various  times  in 
regard  to  the  orio;in  or  source  of  the  crystals  of  apatite 
(phosphate  of  lime,)  of  graphite  (plumbago,)  garnets, 
and  various  other  minerals,  which  are  met  with  in  so 
many  countries  intermingled  with  the  metamorphic  or 
crystalline  limestones.  But  the  origin  of  all  these  is  now 
easily  intelligible.  It  is  certain  that  this  crystalline 
character  is  the  result  of  the  action  o"  heat  long  con- 
tinued. But  the  assumption  of  this  cry  italline  character 
implies  a  power  of  movement  of  the  particles  among 
each  other,  which,  in  fact,  is  seen  n  many  cases  in 
unraelted  bodies — as  in  the  annealing  of  glass  and 
metals,  and  in  the  tempering  and  converting  of  iron  or 
bronze — to  take  place  where  they  are  kept  for  a  pro- 
longed period  at  an  elevated  temperature.  It  is  certain, 
also,  that  particles  of  a  like  kind  have  a  special  attraction 
for  each  other — a  tendency  to  draw  towards  one  another 
and  cohere,  when  circumstances  are  such  as  to  admit  of 
their  moving  among  themselves,  or  among  the  particles 
of  other  matter  with  which  they  may  be  mixed.  And, 
thirdly,  it  is  certain  that,  when  several  substances  which 
incline  to  unite  with  each  other  are  present  in  a  mixture 
in  which  circumstances  admit  of  a  movement  among  the 
particles,  they  often  unite  to  form  definite  chemical 
compounds,  exhibiting,  more  or  less,  well-defined  crys- 
talline forms. 

Now  it  is  known  that  stratified  limestones,  when 
deposited,  are  rarely  free  from  admixtures  of  earthy 
matter,  which  contain  the  constituents  of  garnet,  chon- 
drodite,  hornblende,  &c.  When  these  limestones  are 
subsequently  exposed  to  the  long-continued  action  of 
heat,  the  particles  of  the  rocky  mass  arrange  themselves 
in  crystalline  forms,  while  the  earthy  matters  unite  to 
form  the  simple  minerals  (garnet,  &c.,)  which  can  be  most 
readily  produced  out  of  the  substances  of  which  they 
consist,  in  the  proportions  in  which  they  are  actually 


■f 


284 


I  I 


il 


PRODUCTION   OP  CRYSTALS,  OF  PHOSPHATE 


present.  Hence  the  minerals  produced  differ  in  quantity, 
in  kind,  and  in  relative  proportions,  according  to  the 
quantity  and  nature  of  the  impurities  which  the  lime- 
stone contains. 

Again,  all  limestones,  almost  without  exception,  con- 
tain the  remains  of  animals  or  vegetables,  or  both. 
In  the  former  they  are  often  very  rich,  and  in  these 
phosphate  of  lime  always  exists  in  sensible  quantity. 
When  the  limestone  is  changed  by  heat,  the  animal  and 
vegetable  substances  are  at  the  same  time  entirely 
decomposed.  All  that  is  volatile  escapes;  while  the 
earthy  phosphate,  being  fixed,  remains  intermixed  with 
the  limestone.  But  while  the  particles  of  carbonate  of 
lime  attract  each  other,  and  form  crystalline  marble, 
those  of  phosphate  of  lime  also  attract  each  other,  and, 
although  sparingly  mixed  up  with  the  limestone,  gradu- 
ally approach  each  other,  and  finally  cohere  into  crys- 
talline grains,  and  regularly  crystallised  forms.  In  this 
way  the  phosphate,  which  was  intermixed  with  the 
rocky  mass,  perhaps  in  almost  inappreciable  proportion, 
becomes  collected  together  into  sensible  masses  in  par- 
ticular places.  And  if  the  rock  be  one  which,  like  some 
of  our  still  unchanged  limestones,  is  unusually  rich  in 
animal  remains,  or  in  mineral  phosphates  as  a  mass,  the 
quantity  of  the  separated  crystals  will  be  great  in  pro- 
portion. Hence  their  comparative  abundance  in  some 
of  these  white  limestones,  and  hence  also  the  reason 
why  the  occurrence  of  them  may  be  looked  for,  in  some 
localities,  in  sufficient  quantity  to  admit  of  their  being 
economically  extracted  for  use  in  agriculture  or  the  arts. 

Lastly,  while  the  volatile  parts  of  the  animal  and 
vegetable  matters  contained  in  the  limestone — those 
which  often  give  to  limestones  a  bituminous  character — 
escape  under  the  influence  of  heat,  a  portion  of  the  more 
fixed  charcoal  (carbon)  remains,  in  the  crystallised  form 
of  graphite  or  plumbago.     Hence,  the  deposits  of  this 


I 


OF  LIME,  AND  OF  GRAPHITE. 


235 


substance,  more  or  less  extensive,  which  are  frequently 
met  with  in  inetamorphic  limestones — varying  in  amount 
with  the  quantity  and  kind  of  organic  matter  which  the 
rock  originally  contained,  and  with  the  intensity  and 
continuance  of  the  heat  to  which  it  has  been  exposed. 
In  some  places  in  Canada,  and  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  therefore,  it  may  still  be  found  in  sufficient  quan- 
tity to  prove  an  invaluable  source  of  mineral  wealth. 

If  what  is  above  said,  in  regard  to  the  phosphate  of 
hnie.  be  received  as  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  its 
origin,  it  will  follow  that  crystalline  limestones  in  which 
this  mineral  is  found  must  not  only  be  metamorphic,  but 
must  have  been  deposited  in  the  stratified  form,  and 
have  once  contained  the  remains  of  fossil  animals  in 
very  considerable  quantity. 

I  may  here,  in  connection  with  this  metamorphic 
limestone  of  Canada,  mention  three  facts  observed  by 
Mr  Logan,*  which  are  not  only  interesting  in  themselves, 
but  which  bear  upon  the  important  point  in  chemico- 
geological  theory — the  supposed  origin  of  such  limestones, 
to  which  I  have  just  alluded.  These  facts  are — First^  That 
while  the  gneiss  above  or  below  the  limestone  exhibits 
regular  stratification  and  even  lamination,  the  limestone 
itself  will  at  times  display  contortions  of  the  most  com- 
plicated character,  and  which  increase  in  importance 
with  the  thickness  of  the  bed  of  limestone.  Second^  That 
when  this  thickness  is  great,  beds  of  gneiss,  of  even  a 
foot  in  thickness,  will  be  bent,  folded,  and  broken,  and 
fragments — sometimes  very  large — of  the  gneiss  will 
be  surrounded  by  the  white  limestone.  Third^  That,  in 
one  instance,  the  bed  of  limestone  had  an  uninterrupted 
connection  with  a  mass  of  the  same,  which  filled  up  a 
crack  or  fault  in  the  gneiss,  at  right  angles  to  the  general 
direction  of  the  strata.     In  the  large,  the  limestone  and 

*  Survey  of  Canada  Report  for  1845  and  1846,  p.  43. 


i 


i 


286      SINGULAR  APPEARANCES  IN  THE  LIMESTONE. 

tho  gneiss  were  intcrstratificd  regularly  and  distinctly. 
How,  then,  came  these  anomalous  appearances  ?  They 
are  regarded  by  some  as  proofs  of  the  theory  that  the 
crystalline  limestones,  like  the  granites  which  have  been 
fused,  arc  of  igneous  origin ;  that  they  have  been 
melted,  and  in  this  state  have  been  elevated  from 
beneath,  and  injected  into  the  anomalous  situations  in 
which  they  are  occasionally  found.  Without  denying 
the  possibility  of  such  fusion  and  injection,  there  is  no 
occasion,  I  think,  to  have  recourse  to  this  supposition 
with  the  view  of  explaining  tho  phenomena  hitherto 
observed.  The  most  strenuous  supporter  of  this  igneous 
origin  of  tho  crystalline  limestones  in  North  America  is 
Dr  Emmons  of  Albany — a  man  of  much  learning,  who 
has  enjoyed  many  opportunities  of  personally  observing 
such, rocks  in  situ.  My  attention  was  drawn  to  the 
subject  by  this  gentleman  during  my  stay  in  that  city ; 
I  shall,  therefore,  if  my  space  permit,  return  for  a  little 
to  the  consideration  of  his  views  in  a  subsequent  chapter. 


I 


CftAPTER   XL 

Montreal.— Now  churches. — Ruins  of  the  Porliamcnt  Houso. — Scotch 
fiinnorH  in  tho  iMlanil  of  Montreal. — Soil  near  Lochino. — Its  produce 
per  ucro. — Cultivation  of  hops.— Price  of  land. — French  Canadian 
farms  and  funning. — Bad  farming  at  homo. — Bad    farmers  forced  to 
emigrate. — Clerical  obstacles  to  tho  sottlcmeut  of  Protestant  fanncra 
in  Lower  Canada.— Apples  and  cider   of  tho   island. — Hedges  of 
English  and  American  Thorn. — Valley  of  Lachino.— Importance  of 
a  better  practical   husbandry  in   Lower  Canada. — Interest  of  ou 
established  clergy  in  promoting  its  introduction. — Interest  they  have 
in  tho  land. — Yet  progress  has  generally  been  slowest  where  tho 
interest  of  the  clergy  is  the  greatest. — Importance  of  agricultural 
instruction  in  the  country  schools,  especially  in  agricultural  principUa. 
— How  they  should  bo  taught. — Desire  to  introduce  such  instruction  in 
Lower  Canada.— Patronage  of  the  Roman  Catholic  clei-gy. — Excursion 
to  St  Hilaire. — St  Lawrence  and  Atlantic  railroad. — Winter  shelter 
for  cattle. — Mode  of  making  butter. — Maple  sugar  manufacture  in 
Canada  and  tho  adjoining  States. — Mode  of  procedure. — Produce  of 
single  trees.  —  Profit  of  Maple-groves.  —  Soil  of  the  valley  of  St 
Lawrence. — Tile-drainage  upon  its  stiff  clays. — Pigeon  or  stone  weed, 
its  prevalence. — What  its  history  teaches. — Inferior  breeds  of  pigs  and 
cattle. — Bellooil  Mountain.— Pilgrimage  Stations. — Beautiful  view  of 
tho  St  Lawrence  flats. — Exhaustion  of  this  formerly  fertile  region. — 
Seignorial  tenure  of   land. — Reserved  rights    of    the  seigneur. — 
Reserved  rents  a  grievance. — Sherbrooko. — Lands  of  the  "  Canadian 
Land  Company,"  in  the  eastern    counties.  —  Their  progress    and 
present  inconveniences. —  Tile-draining  at  Montreal.  —  Voyage  to 
Quebec. — The  Ottawa  River  and  District.— Its  rising  importance. — 
Proportions  of  British  and  French  in  Montreal. — National,  political, 
religious,  and  municipal  parties  in  the  city.— Difficulty  in  satisfying 
such  a  population. — Wisdom  in  changing  the  seat  of  government. — 
Why  the  British  members  from  Upper  Canada  voted  for  the  Rebellion 
Losses  Bill, — Explanation  of  one  of  their  number. 

Sunday,  23d  September. — I  attended  morning  service  in 
an  Episcopal  chapel  in  Montreal.      It  was  well  per- 


! 


'It 


•!^ 


1:1     i) 


288 


"  REBELLION    REWARDED." 


formed ;  but  the  congregation  was  very  small.  In  its 
ecclesiastical  concerns,  the  city  appears  to  be  in  a  very 
prosperous  and  thriving  condition.  A  new  Roman 
Catholic  cathedral,  and  a  palace  for  the  bishop,  have  been 
of  late  years  erected.  The  cathedral  is  chiefly  remark- 
able for  its  size  and  internal  capacity.  It  is  so  fitted  up 
with  pews  as  to  afford  sitting-room  for  ten  thousand 
people  !  New  churches  belonging  to  other  denominations 
also,  and  all  handsome,  are  springing  up  in  various  well- 
selected  situations. 

As  I  went  along  the  streets,  evidences  of  the  prevail- 
ing political  excitement  presented  themselves  every- 
where. Among  others  was  a  large  placard  on  the  walls, 
headed  "  Rebellion  Rewarded,"  and  containing  extracts 
from  the  speeches  of  Lords  Stanley  and  Lyndhurst  in 
the  Pouse  of  Lords,  on  the  subject  of  the  recent  Com- 
pensation Bill.  I  could  not  help  regretting  that  opinions 
should  have  been  expressed  by  influential  men  in  the 
Home  legislature,  which  those  who  were  now  declaring 
themselves  enemies  of  British  connection  should  be  able 
to  quote  with  something  like  a  show  of  reason,  in 
justification  of  their  illegal  violence. 

I  visited  the  ruins  of  the  Parliament  House.  It  had 
been  a  fine  massive  building,  constructed  of  the  blue 
Trenton  limestone,  which  is  much  employed  as  a  building 
stone  in  Montreal.  The  outer  walls  were  still  standing ; 
but  though  massively  built,  it  appeared  to  be  entirely 
incapable  of  repair.  It  is  a  defect  of  this  stone,  other- 
wise excellent  for  building  purposes,  that  the  united 
action  of  fire  and  water  upon  it  causes  it  to  crack,  and 
fly  into  numberless  splinters.  Hence  the  walls  of  the 
Parliament  House,  and  those  of  a  large  hotel  lately 
burned  down  in  the  city,  are  shattered  and  splintered  in 
every  direction.  This  is  an  evil  to  which  walls  of  brick, 
sandstone,  granite,  or  hardened  slate,  are  not  so  subject. 

Monday^  Sept.  24. — The  wind  was  blowing  cold  this 


SCOTCH  FARMERS  AT  LACHINE. 


289 


morning,  and  I  began  to  feel  my  summer  clothing  too 
light  for  the  Canadian  autumn.  After  breakfast,  I 
drove  out  to  Lachine  with  a  Mr  Somerville,  a  practi- 
cal Scottish  farmer,  long  settled  in  the  country,  who  has 
a  farm  of  300  or  400  acres  on  the  banks  of  the  St 
Lawrence,  opposite  the  rapids  of  I^achine.  He  and  his 
neighbour,  Mr  Penner,  are  farmers  of  the  old  Scotch 
school,  who  bid  you  "  lay  the  land  dry,  then  clean  and 
manure — make  straight  furrows,  clean  out  your  ditches, 
take  off  the  stones,  and  plough  deepish"  With  these 
good  mechanical  principles,  industriously  carried  out, 
they  have  greatly  surpassed  the  French  Canadian  far- 
mers ;  and  with  the  possession  of  good  Ayrshire  stock, 
and  the  growth  of  a  few  tuniips,  and  of  mangold- 
wurzel,  which  does  well  even  with  the  early  winters  of 
Lower  Canada,  they  have  raised  good  crops,  extended 
the  arable  land  of  their  farms,  and  kept  up  its  condition. 

The  soil  on  this  part  of  the  island  of  Montreal,  which 
lies  low,  and  along  the  river,  is  of  a  blackish  colour, 
generally  very  rich — of  a  loamy  character,  and  easy  to 
work.  It  is  drained  by  open  ditches  and  cross-furrows. 
Tile-draining,  hitherto  untried,  is  indicated  by  the  local 
circumstances  of  soil,  climate,  and  physical  position ; 
and  although  here,  as  in  the  State  of  New  York,  the 
cost  may  appear  large  when  compared  with  the  total 
value  of  the  land,  and  the  increase  of  price  which,  after 
tile-draining,  would  be  obtained  for  it  in  the  market, 
yet,  if  from  the  cost  be  deducted  the  annual  outlay  which 
must  be  incurred  to  keep  the  ditches  and  cross-furrows 
open,  the  actual  expense  of  the  permanent  tile-drainage 
will  rapidly  disappear.  When  a  man  settles  on  such 
land,  therefore,  as  requires  the  maintaining  of  open 
ditches — with  the  view  of  retaining  it,  say  only  ten  to 
twelve  years — he  will,  in  most  cases,  find  his  pecuniary 
profit  greater  at  the  end  of  the  term,  although  the  price 

VOL.  I.  T 


yV 


^1     IH 


290 


THE  GARDEN   OF  CANADA. 


he  then  sells  his  land  for  should  really  be  nc  7;reater,  in 
consequence  of  the  drainage  he  has  performed.  Here, 
as  in  New  Brunswick  and  the  Eastern  States  of  the 
Union,  I  find  it  was  a  disputed  question  whether  money 
is  to  be  made  by  farming,  where  all  the  work  is  done 
by  hired  labour;  that  is,  whether  the  Scotch  and 
English  system  of  large  farming,  or  the  class  of  large 
farmers,  can  be  successfully  introduced  into  the  pro- 
vince. 

It  is  conceded  that  a  man  with  100  acres  in  cultiva- 
tion, doing  one-half  the  work  by  the  hands  of  his  own 
family,  and  employing  hired  labour  to  do  the  rest,  may 
make  both  ends  meet;  but  if  a  larger  farm  is  to  be 
worked  by  the  same  home-force,  with  a  larger  number 
of  hired  labourers,  it  is  a  question  whether  it  can  be 
done,  in  average  years,  so  as  to  pay.  This  doubt  arises 
not  merely  from  the  high  price,  but  from  the  alleged, 
and  I  believe  real,  inferior  quality  of  the  agricultural 
labour — chiefly  Irish — which  a  farmer  is  able  to  secure. 

The  island  of  Montreal  has  been  long  celebrated  for 
its  fertility,  and,  from  its  production  of  fine  fruits,  has 
been  called  "  the  garden  of  Canada."  The  front-land, 
along  the  river,  over  which  I  passed,  is  very  good,  pro- 
ducing, per  imperial  acre,  from  20  to  35  bushels  of 
wheat,  from  40  to  60  of  oats,  and  of  Indian  com, 
though  not  much  cultivated  here,  from  40  to  50  bushels. 
The  value  of  this  land  is,  on  an  average,  about  £20 
currency,  or  £16  sterling,  per  acre,  when  it  is  in  a  good 
state  of  cultivation,  and  has  good  buildings  upon  it. 

Mr  Penner's  farm  is,  for  the  most  part,  very  superior 
land.  From  40  to  50  acres  of  it  are  in  hops,  which 
thrive  well — produce,  on  an  average,  from  800  to  1000 
lb.  per  acre,  and  are  a  profitable  crop.  Here,  as  in  our 
own  hop-grounds,  and  in  those  of  Flanders,  they 
require  high  manuring ;  and  thus,  as  a  general  article 
of  culture,  they  are  beyond  the  skill  of  the  manure- 


PRICE  AND  PRODUCE  OP  LAND. 


291 


neglecting  French  Canadians,  and  the  equally  careless 
British  and  Irish  emigrant  settlers.  This  rich  hop-land 
is  worth  £40  an  acre.  i.i 

At  a  distance  of  twenty  or  thirty  miles  from  the  mar- 
ket of  Montreal,  good  land  can  be  bought  for  £4  to  £7 
an  acre ;  but  the  buildings  are  generally  bad.  If  these 
happen  to  be  good,  the  price  is  higher.  The  farms  in 
this  district  usually  run  in  long  stripes,  the  breadth  of 
3  acres  in  front,  and  from  30  to  50  back,  or  from  90  to 
150  acres  in  all.  The  average  produce  on  the  farms  of 
the  Canadian  French  is  not  more,  as  I  was  informed 
here,  than  8  to  10  bushels  of  wheat  per  acre — and  for 
this  grain  the  soil  is  becoming  poorer — and  20  bushels 
of  oats.  They  grow  little  hay,  except  on  the  natural 
meadows,  from  which  they  reap  1  to  1^  tons  an  acre. 
The  system  is  to  divide  the  farm  in  two,  lengthwise, 
and  to  crop  the  one  and  pasture  the  other  alternately, 
without  sowing  down — merely  grazing  the  weeds  that 
spring  up. 

This  neglect  of  grass-seeds  may  be  considered  as  a 
fair  indication  of  a  low  state  of  practical  husbandry,  in 
nearly  every  country  which  is  blessed  with  a  moderately 
moist  and  temperate  climate.  It  is  far  too  general  in 
North  America — the  Provinces  and  States  alike.  Even 
among  our  home-farmers,  it  is  to  be  observed  much 
more  frequently  than  those  persons  who  never  leave  the 
high-roads  in  their  agricultural  travels  would  readily 
believe. 

Indeed,  if  we  go  a  little  out  of  the  beaten  track,  we 
may  find,  either  in  England  or  Scotland,  all  the  vices  of 
American  farming.  Our  home-farmers,  indeed,  may  be 
said  to  be  the  parents  of  them  all.  We  have  among 
us  still  numberless  farmers  of  the  old  school,  possessed 
of  deep-rooted  prejudices,  who  refuse  to  advance  and 
change  their  methods.  It  is  chiefly  such  men  who, 
during  the  last  twenty  or  thirty  years,  while  those  who 


I 


ii: 


t 


f 


;    I 


4    ' 
i 


\ 


I    'ill!. 


Ill 

i  ilil 
i  mi 


i9 


292 


INTEREST  OP  THE  CLERGY. 


advanced  with  the  times  were  generally  prosperous,  have, 
one  by  one,  been  driven  from  their  farms,  and  forced  to 
emigrate.  Having  sacrificed  themselves  at  home  to 
their  prejudices,  they  bear  them  religiously  beyond  the 
Atlantic,  and  transmit  them  as  heir-looms  to  their 
descendants.*  The  changes  in  our  cora-laws  will  not, 
it  is  to  be  hoped,  now  send  out  any  of  our  better  men. 

With  such  men,  holding  at  least  a  considerable  share 
of  the  land,  it  is  not  surprising  that  bad  farming  should 
be  found  in  North  America,  even  among  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race  ;  and  if  improvements  are  introduced  slowly 
among  us,  they  cannot  be  expected  to  advance  with  a 
less  languid  step  among  them. 

It  is  believed  that  the  introduction  of  British  settlers 
into  Lower  Canada  would  improve  the  rural  industry 
of  the  French  population  ;  and,  in  so  far  as  the  example 
of  a  more  patient  and  energetic  blood  goes,  this  might 
possibly  be  the  case.  But,  in  addition  to  the  unwilling- 
ness which  the  British  Protestant  emigrant  feels  to  place 
himself  in  the  midst  of  a  people  who  speak  a  different 
tongue,  and  belong  to  a  different  religious  denomina- 
tion, there  is  another  obstacle  to  this  admixture  of  races, 
arising  out  of  the  law  of  tithes,  of  which  I  was  not 
aware  until  my  friends  explained  it  to  me  here  to-day. 

Before  the  British  conquest,  the  Roman  Catholic 
clergy  were,  by  law,  entitled  to  the  tithes  of  all  land — 
one  twenty-sixth  part  of  the  produce  being  the  legal 
due  of  the  priest  of  the  parish.  But  by  what  is  called, 
I  believe,  the  Quebec  Act,  they  are  now  permitted 
to  demand  tithe  of  persons  of  their  own  persuasion  only, 
Protestants  being  exempt.  Hence,  every  transfer  of 
land  from  a  Roman  Catholic  to  a  Protestant  proprie- 
tor, is  a  money-loss  to  the  Romish  Church,  and  a 
money-inducement  is  held  out  to  the  priest  of  the  place 

•  See,  for  instance,  the  state  of  farming  in  Lancashire  even  now.— 
Soyal  Agncultural  Journal,  vol.  x.,  part  1. 


CANADIAN  THORN-HEDGES. 


293 


vance  with  a 


Ire  even  now.— 


to  throw  obstacles  in  the  way  of  such  transfers.  This 
is  a  temptation  by  which  the  best  of  men  among  the 
Roman  Catholic  clergy  may  be  insensibly  biassed,  and 
to  which  the  law  ought  not  to  expose  them. 

Fruit,  and  especially  apples,  grow  well  on  the  low- 
lying  black  land  I  visited  to-day;  and  orchards  are 
numerous  around  Montreal.  At  Mr  Penner's,  I  saw 
some  fine  apple-trees,  and  gathered  some  excellent 
fruit.  Among  other  eatable  varieties,  the  pomme  grise 
is  one  which  is  highly  esteemed  as  a  good  bearer  and  of 
high  flavour.  Some  of  the  valuable  rennets  also,  such  as 
the  large  white  Canadian,  called  also  the  large  English 
rennet,  are  said  to  be  of  Canadian  origin.  Besides  table 
fruit,  cider-apples  also  are  grown ;  and  in  addition  to 
those  of  his  own  orchard,  Mr  Penner  buys  and  crushes 
those  of  the  neighbouring  orchards. 

For  the  first  time  in  Canada,  I  saw  here  some  hedge- 
rows of  our  English  thorn,  Cratcegus  oxyacantha.  The 
mice  are  said  to  be  their  greatest  enemies.  When  the 
snow  is  on  the  ground,  they  often  destroy  this  and  other 
valuable  trees,  by  gnawing  off  the  bark  for  food — as 
hares  and  rabbits,  in  severe  winters,  do  with  us.  I  saw 
also  some  very  nice  and  well-kept  fences  of  the  American 
thorn — the  Cratcegus  crus-galb\  or  cockspur  thoni,  I 
believe.*  No  other  objection  was  stated  to  the  general 
introduction  of  these  hedges,  except  the  trouble  and 
expense  of  keeping  them  in  repair. 

Before  leaving  Mr  Penner's  farm,  I  ought  to  mention, 
in  connection  with  the  high-manuring  of  his  hop-lands, 
that  he  has  a  bone-mill  upon  his  farm — that  there  is 
another  at  Montreal ;  but  that,  as  I  was  informed, 
scarcely  any  true  Canadian  has  as  yet  seriously  thought 

*  In  the  State  of  New  York,  four  native  Bpecies  of  thorn  are  known, 
of  which  this  is  considered  the  best  suited  for  hedges,  and  is  most 
frequently  employed  for  this  purpose.  I  am  not  aware  if  all  these  species 
are  natives  of  Canada  also. 


M  : 


994 


DIFFERENCE  OF  INTEREST  BETWEEN 


of  employing  such  a  thing  as  bones,  even  for  the  manur- 
ing of  his  worn-out  wheat-lands. 

I  returned  from  Lachine,  by  the  way  of  the  valley — 
apparently  an  old  channel  of  the  St  Lawrence,  or  of  the 
Ottawa — along  which  the  ship-canal  and  the  railway 
have  been  conducted.  There  is  rich  flat  meadow-land  in 
the  bottom  of  the  valley,  only  partially  drained;  and 
some  tracts  of  rich  alluvial  soil,  dry  enough  to  be  sub- 
mitted to  arable  culture,  and  productive  of  excellent 
crops.  The  upland,  also,  is  generally  of  good  quality, 
and  well-cultivated  farms  are  not  unfrequent.  On  one 
of  these  I  met  with  a  warm  and  kind  reception  from  Mr 
Evans,  the  Secretary  of  the  Lower  Canada  Agricultural 
Society,  editor  of  their  Journal  and  Transactions,  and 
the  author  of  a  valuable  treatise  on  agriculture,  adapted 
to  the  climate  and  productions  of  Canada.  Both  on  this 
and  on  subsequent  occasions,  I  was  indebted  to  the  kind- 
ness aud  attention  of  Mr  Evans,  and  was  obliged  to 
him  for  much  valuable  information. 

Sept.  25. — Among  other  persons  whom  it  gave  me 
pleasure  to  visit  this  morning  was  M.  Morin,  President 
of  the  Legislative  Assembly,  and  of  the  Lower  Canada 
Agricultural  Society;  and  M.  Villeneuve,  Principal  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  college.  Both  of  these  gentlemen 
expressed  a  strong  desire  to  promote  the  introduction  of 
a  better  system  of  practical  agriculture  among  the  inha- 
bitants of  Lower  Canada ;  and  no  other  kind  of  instruc- 
tion— I  may  say,  from  all  I  afterwards  saw,  no  other  gift 
which  can  be  bestowed  upon  this  people — seems  likely  to 
be  productive  of  more  material  good  to  the  province. 

Looking  at  the  relation  which  an  established  clergy 
bears  to  the  agriculture  of  a  country,  in  one  of  the 
aspects  in  which  it  naturally  presents  itself,  it  would 
appear  as  if  no  class  of  men  ought  to  be  more  anxious  to 
promote  agricultural  improvement,  to  remove  obstacles  out 
of  its  way,  and  to  diffuse  that  kind  of  knowledge  by  which 


'ViU^riM 


THE  TITHE-OWNER  AND  TITHE-PAYER. 


295 


1  it  gave  me 


it  is  to  be  most  rapidly  advanced.  Entitled  in  most 
countries  to  a  certain  fixed  share  of  the  produce  of  the 
land,  the  larger  that  produce  can  be  made,  the  greater 
the  revenue  the  clergy  must  yearly  receive.  And  yet 
experience  seems  to  show  that  it  is  precisely  when,  as  in 
Scotland,  the  established  clergy  have  the  least  interest  in 
the  amount  of  produce  yielded  by  the  land,  that  agri- 
cultural improvement  has  most  progressed  ;  while  it  has 
remained  most  backward,  also,  in  those  Roman  Catholic 
countries  in  which  their  interest  has  remained  the 
greatest.  Every  one,  in  fact,  knows  how  the  tithe 
question  has  impeded  rural  improvement  in  countless 
localities,  even  in  England  ;  and  how  the  tithe-com- 
mutation measure  has  been  introduced,  in  the  hope  of 
removing  the  obstacles  it  presented,  not  more  to  rural 
peace  than  to  rural  progress. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  how  such  obstacles 
should  actually  arise  out  of  what,  at  first  sight,  appears 
likely  to  promote  agricultural  improvement  ;  how  a 
diversity  of  interest  should  exist  between  the  cultivator 
and  the  tithe-collector ;  and  how  human  nature  should 
stubbornly,  though  foolishly,  refuse  to  adopt  new  methods 
which  would  be  more  profitable  to  the  farmer  himself, 
simply  because  they  would  at  the  same  time  be  a  source 
of  profit  to  another,  who  incurs  none  of  the  additional 
labour,  anxiety,  or  expense. 

There  is,  however,  an  indirect  method  by  which 
improvements  are  certain  to  be  brought  about — slowly 
perhaps  at  first,  but  largely  and  generally  in  the  end. 
This  method  is  the  general  diffusion  of  knowledge 
bearing  upon  the  practice  of  agriculture.  It  is  not  by 
prescribing  new  methods  to  old  men — by  staking  our 
chances  of  success  on  the  hope  of  overcoming  the  pre- 
judices of  the  most  prejudiced  class  of  society.  It  is  by 
instilling  into  young  and  unprejudiced  minds  the  prin- 
ciples according  to  which  all  rural  practice  ought  to  be 


1:9  i 


.1  ii 


I 


'l!^ 


I     I; 


ill!' 

'D       'I  I  rr^ 

I  !  " 


'I  1 


296 


IMPORTANCE  OP  DIFFUSING 


regulated,  that  future  practice  will  be  most  certainly 
made  better.  This  can  be  done  at  little  or  no  expense ; 
and  in  regard  to  imparting  this  knowledge,  there  can  be 
no  opposition  of  interests  between  the  clergy  and  the 
rural  laity.  In  most  places,  the  parents  will  regard  the 
new  instruction  as  a  boon  to  their  children,  and  will  be 
proud  of  their  knowledge.  They  will,  in  most  cases,  also 
be  delighted  to  see  their  children  apply  this  knowledge 
under  their  own  eye ;  and  if  they  theniselves  refuse  their 
assent  to  the  introduction  of  this  better  culture,  it  is  sure 
to  be  seen  on  the  farms  to  which  their  sons  succeed.  To 
all,  therefore,  who  have  an  indirect  interest  in  the  better 
tillage  of  the  land  by  those  who  hold  it,  the  diffusion  of 
such  knowledge  among  the  young  in  our  rural  districts 
at  home,  as  well  as  abroad,  ought  to  be  a  chief  concern. 
Especially  in  our  home  islands,  now  when  rents  are 
falling,  if  knowledge  can  by  possibility  be  made  to  keep 
them  up  without  diminishing  the  comforts  or  reasonable 
profits  of  the  farmer,  it  ought  to  be  liberally,  and  with  a 
ready  hand,  scattered  among  the  children  of  the  people. 

To  be  generally  available,  however,  the  mode  in  which 
this  is  done  should  be  easy,  short,  inexpensive,  involving 
little  change  in  the  ordinary  school-routine,  little  new 
machinery,  and  little  interference  with  the  customary 
school-teaching,  in  kind  or  quantity.  All  this,  I  think, 
may  be  effected,  if  the  eye  is  kept  bent  upon  the  one 
object — that  of  instructing  the  children  in  agricultural 
principles^  and  their  modes  of  application.  These  are 
comparatively  few  in  number — can  be  simply  expressed, 
so  as  to  be  intelligible  to  the  very  young ;  and  can  be 
taught  in  so  short  a  time  as  to  interfere  in  no  necessary 
degree  with  the  usual  branches  of  education. 

It  is  difficult  to  impress  this  clearly  and  distinctly 
either  upon  the  general  mind,  upon  that  of  teachers 
themselves,  or  even  upon  that  of  school-inspectors.  The 
principles  I  speak  of  are  deduced  from  scientific  inquiry — 


AQllICULTURAL  KNOWLEDGE. 


297 


ne,  little  new 


chemical,  geological,  botanical,  and  physiological  research. 
In  the  expression  of  these  principles,  new  words — the 
names,  for  example,  of  certain  substances  familiar  to  the 
chemist  or  botanist — are  necessarily  employed.     These 
words  or  names  must  be  understood,  if  the  sentence  in 
which  they  are  contained  is  to  be  comprehended — as  the 
child  is  shown  pictures  of  the  horse  and  the  lamb,  or  is 
taken  to   the  fields  to   see   these   animals,   if  it  is  to 
understand  the  early  reading-lessons  in  which  they  are 
mentioned.      But   a  thing    is  known   by   its   sensible 
properties ;   and  as  a  child   at  once   distinguishes  the 
apple,  the  potato,  the  turnip,  and  the  onion,  by  their 
form,   colour,   taste,  and   smell,  so,  among  the  things 
chemistry  deals  with — phosphorus  and  sulphur,  oxygen 
and  nitrogen,  starch  and  gluten,  must  be  made  familiar 
to  his  senses,  if  he  is  to  understand  the  meaning  of  their 
names.     Thus  far  experimental  chemistry  is  necessary 
in  the  teaching  of  agricultural  principles.    It  must  make 
the  words  intelligible,  but  no  more  is  necessary.     With 
the  apparatus  or  book  in  his  hand,  however,  the  master 
(if  the  purpose  of  his  teaching  be  not  clear  to  his  own 
mind)  is  apt  to  introduce  other  unnecessary  experiments 
or  scientific  explanations,  burdening  the  memory  of  the 
boy,  and  distracting  his  attention.    The  school-inspector, 
also,  not   distinguishing  more  clearly  the  true  line  of 
agricultural  teaching,   sometimes   encourages   this,   by 
requiring  and  expecting,  at  his  examinations,  a  know- 
ledge of  purely  chemical  principles,  which  are  necessary 
neither  to  the  comprehension  nor  to  the  future  appli- 
cation of  the  agricultural  principles  which  are  intended 
to  be  inculcated.     A  teacher  must  learn  to  resist  the 
temptation  to  show  a  pretty  experiment,  even  with  the 
laudable  desire  of  making  his  pupils  see  and  feel  its 
natural  beauty,  for  the  boy  will  naturally  ask,  "  How 
does  this  apply  to  agriculture  ?  "    It  requires  a  clearer 
head    and    more  considerable    knowledge  than  many 


Ml 
I, 'nil 


;l     ;    I 


ill; 


■ii 


i::i.T!  1 


298 


INSTRUCTION   IN  THE  SCHOOLS 


teachers  of  elementary  schools  possess,  to  bo  able  to 
draw  the  distinct  lino  I  speak  of,  between  what  ought 
to  be  taught  and  what  withheld,  and  considerable  self- 
restraint  to  keep  within  that  line,  when  it  is  seen.  The 
school-inspector,  therefore,  at  his  periodical  visit,  should 
sedulously  assist,  by  the  questions  ho  puts,  in  keeping 
bun  to  the  special  instruction  which  is  to  be  given, 
otherwise  this  branch  of  scientific  agriculture  will  be 
made  to  occupy  too  prominent  a  place  in  the  course  of 
instruction,  and  will  take  up  more  time  than  is  properly 
due  to  it,  while  the  pupils  will,  at  the  same  time,  be  less 
satisfactorily  or  usefully  taught. 

These  remarks  I  introduce  here,  as  likely  to  be  by  no 
means  without  their  use  even  among  ourselves ;  for 
though  I  have  often,  in  various  ways,  pressed  such 
views  upon  teachers  and  parents  in  our  rural  districts,  and 
though  as  many  as  26,000  copies  of  my  little  Catechism 
— which  contains  all  the  chemistry,  and  all  the  agricul- 
tural principles  which,  in  my  opinion,  are  necessary  to 
make  the  schoolboys  of  our  day  the  agricultural  inijX  .)v- 
ers  of  the  future — have  been  distributed  at  home,  yet  in 
many  cases  I  have  reason  to  fear  that  the  prospect  of 
good  has  been  marred  by  a  departure  from  the  simple 
necessities  of  the  case,  and  the  introduction  of  what  is 
really  extraneous  matter.  For  whatever  may  be  said 
in  favour  of  pure  chemistry  as  a  separate  branch  of 
school-teaching,  it  is  not  included  in,  and  ought  not  to 
be  unnecessarily  mixed  up,  in  elementary  schools^  with 
instruction  in  the  principles  of  agriculture. 

Upon  this  subject  of  instruction  in  the  principles  of 
agriculture  in  the  common  schools  of  the  country,  I  had 
frequent  opportunities  of  conversing  with  influential 
persons  in  the  British  Provinces  and  in  the  United 
States,  and  rarely,  I  believe,  without  awakening  a 
desire,  or  strengthening  that  which  pre-existed,  to 
promote   this  object,    as    a    means   of  most  certainly 


FAVOUIIKD   BV   TIIK  CLEROY. 


299 


bettering  the  futiiro  condition  of  practical  agriculture 
cveryvvlierc. 

JM.  Villeneuve,  the  Principal  of  the  Uomau  Catholic 
college  at  Montreal,  I  found  already  alive  to  the  subject, 
lie  had  taken  one  of  the  college  farms  into  his  own 
hands,  witii  a  view  to  model  improvements ;  and  on  his 
library  table  I  was  pleased  to  find  a  copy  of  the  fifth 
American  edition  of  my  published  Jicctures.  In  no 
country  in  the  world,  as  my  subsequent  experience 
taught  me,  is  the  application  of  a  greater  amount  of 
knowledge  to  the  soil  more  necessary  than  in  Lower 
Canada.  Through  the  primary  schools  it  can  be  brought 
to  bear  upon  the  practice  of  the  next  generation, 
without  interfering  directly  with  the  prejudices  of  the 
present;  and  thus,  without  clashing  of  interests,  the 
common  good  of  all  may  be  surely  and  peacefully 
promoted. 

My  stay  in  Montreal  was  too  short  to  allow  me  the 
opportunity  of  meeting  and  conversing  with  the  nume- 
rous other  persons  who  are  interested  in  the  improve- 
ment of  Lower  Canadian  agriculture.  I  was  happy, 
however,  to  find  that  the  heads  of  the  Koman  Catholic 
clergy,  here  and  at  Quebec,  were  among  the  chief 
supporters  of  the  Agricultural  Society  of  the  Lower 
Province,  and  were  exerting  themselves  to  interest  the 
inferior  clergy,  so  influential  among  the  habitants,  in  the 
introduction  of  a  modicum  of  agricultural  instruction 
into  the  schools  under  their  charge. 

In  the  afternoon  of  this  day  I  crossed  the  St  Law- 
rence with  Mr  Wettenhall,  an  influential  member  of 
Assembly  from  Upper  Canada,  and  Major  Campbell,  of 
St  Ililairc,  Secretary  to  the  Governor-general,  who  had 
kindly  invited  us  to  visit  him  at  his  place  of  St  Hilaire, 
about  fifteen  miles  from  Montreal.  We  crossed  the 
river  by  a  steamboat,  and  descended  a  little  way  to 
Longeuil,  Avhence  we  proceeded  by  the  St  Lawrence 


300 


8T   LAWKENCE  AND  ATLANTIC   RAILWAY. 


and  Atlantic  railroad,  which  has  already  been  opened  as 
far  as  St  Hyacinth,  a  distance  of  about  twenty-seven 
miles.  This  railroad,  which  will  afford  the  easiest  and 
shortest  line  yet  projected  from  Montreal  to  the  Atlantic, 
will  reach  the  coast  at  Portland  in  Maine.  When  it 
is  completed,  which  is  expected  to  bo  the  case  in  two  or 
three  years,  it  will  not  only  greatly  promote  the  pros- 
perity of  Montreal  and  of  Quebec,  to  which  city  a  branch 
is  intended  to  fork  off,  but  it  will  much  assist  the  city  of 
Portland  to  compete  with  the  growing  neighbour  city  of 
Boston,  which  it  is  anxious  to  rival  and  surpass.  To  be 
at  the  mouth  of  a  long  river,  or  at  the  terminus  of  a  long 
inland  railway,  and  upon  the  Atlantic  border,  seem,  from 
past  experience,  to  be  sure  preludes  to  commercial  pro- 
sperity in  a  North  American  city.  It  is  not  surprising, 
therefore,  that  New  York,  Boston,  and  Portland,  should 
all  be  anxious  to  perfect,  complete,  or  shorten  their  lines 
of  communication  with  the  Cunadas  and  the  St  Law- 
rence. 

For  ten  miles  we  went  over  a  flat  country,  chiefly 
of  tertiary  or  post-tertiary  light-coloured  clays.  Here  a 
break-down  upon  the  line  arrested  our  advance,  and  we 
considered  the  most  promising  way  of  getting  on  was  to 
walk  the  remaining  five  miles.  This  gave  us  an  oppor- 
tunity of  seeing  to  greater  advantage  the  wooden  bridge 
and  viaduct,  1200  feet  long,  which  conducts  the  railway 
across  the  river  Kichelieu.  This  bridge,  though  nothing 
almost  when  compared  with  the  engineering  triumphs  of 
our  British  railways,  is  deserving  of  a  visit,  both  as  a 
difficult  work  of  art,  and  as  an  evidence  of  the  enterprise 
and  energy  of  a  young  and  growing  country.  We 
arrived  at  St  Hilaire  three  hours  behind  our  time,  and 
fully  prepared  for  an  unexpectedly  late  dinner. 

8ept.  26. — This  morning  was  wet  and  unpromising 
for  a  rural  excursion  in  a  flat  and  somewhat  clayey 
country,  where  the  roads  are  bad  and  walking  difficult. 


ilii—    tut 


ST   IHLAIRE   ML  ITER. 


301 


While  the  sua  camo  out,  however,  put  an  end  to  tlio 
rain  and  dried  tljo  land,  wo  w«'re  able  to  inspect  tho 
well-finished  stables  and  farm-ofti  oes  which  Major  Camp- 
bell has  erected,  and  to  inspect  his  dairy  and  his  stores 
of  maple  sugar. 

I  have  already,  in  speaking  of  the  winters  of  New 
Brunswick,  made  some  remarks  upon  tho  importance  of 
greater  attention  to  the  warmth  of  the  cattle,  if  their 
condition  is  to  bo  easily  kept  up,  fodder  saved,  and  profit 
to  be  made  by  keeping  them.  In  this  and  the  lower 
parts  of  Canada,  similar  observations  apply  to  the  mode 
in  which  the  habitants  tend  their  cattle  in  winter.  In 
Upper  Canada,  west  of  Kingston,  open  hammels  are  in 
use  for  winter  shelter,  but  in  Lower  Canada  this  prac- 
tice is  inconsistent  with  economy.  About  Montreal,  in 
the  winter  of  1848,  the  thermometer,  for  three  weeks 
together,  never  rose  above  zero.  To  expose  cattle  to 
such  extreme  weather  is  to  sacrifice  food.  It  struck  me, 
therefore,  that,  in  erecting  well-constructed  warm  winter 
buildings  for  his  stock,  the  Seigneur  of  St  Hilaire  was 
setting  a  most  commendable  example  to  his  tenantry  and 
more  wealthy  neighbours. 

I  do  not  know  how  far  the  method  of  making  butter 
adopted  in  Mr  Campbell's  dairy  is  common  in  Lower 
Canada,  but  here  it  is  made  after  the  manner  of  what 
is  sometimes  called  Bohemian  butter^  or  of  some  of  the 
varieties  of  the  Epping  butter  of  England.  The  cream 
is  collected,  Devonshire  fashion,  in  the  form  of  clouted 
cream,  by  placing  the  milk -vessel,  in  which  the  milk  has 
already  stood  twelve  hours,  upon  a  hot  plate  till  it  is 
nearly  boiling,  then  setting  aside  twelve  hours  to  cool, 
and  subsequently  removing  the  cream  in  the  usual 
manner.  In  this  way  it  is  said  that  a  fourth  more  butter 
is  obtained,  and  the  churning  is  performed  by  merely 
stirring  the  cream  about  with  a  stirrer,  or  with  the 
naked  hand.     Of  course  the   skimmed  milk   is  more 


ill. 


MANUFACTURE  OF   MAPLE  SUGAR 


worthless,  and  contains  only  the  curd  and  the  sugar  of 
the  new  milk.* 

But  the  maple-sugar  manufacture  of  this  neighbour- 
hood was  more  interesting,  as  it  possessed  more  novelty 
to  me.  The  importance  of  this  industry  to  the  Canadas 
may  be  judged  of  from  the  fact  that,  in  1848,  there 
was  made,  in  Canada  West,  as  much  as  4,140,667  lb. 
of  maple  sugar,  or  nearly  6  lb.  for  each  inhabitant. 
In  Lower  Canada,  in  1844,  the  quantity  produced  was 
2,250,000.  If  we  suppose  it  now  to  be  3,000,000,  the 
whole  quantity  of  maple  sugar  produced  in  average  years, 
in  all  Canada,  is  about  7,000,000  lb.  There  are  imported 
besides,  of  West  India  sugar,  about  20,000,000  lb.— 
so  that  the  home  produce  amounts  to  one-fourth  of  the 
home  consumption. 

Maple  sugar  is  also  an  important  article  of  rural 
industry  in  some  of  the  United  States.  In  Michigan, 
the  produce  in  1848  was  estimated  at  1,774,368  lb. ;  and 
in  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire,  it  amounted  to  several 
millions  of  pounds,  f 

Major  Campbell  is  himself  a  maple-sugar  grower  to  a 
considerable  extent.  On  his  domain  he  possesses  about 
12,000  trees,  which  yield  on  an  average  about  a  pound 

*  Another  vai'iety,  which  I  believe  is  the  genuine  esteemed  Epping 
butter,  is  made  by  churning  alone  the  cream  which  rises  naturally  during 
the  first  twenty- four  hours.  This  gives  a  much  more  delicately  flavoured 
butter  than  when  all  the  cream  which  the  milk  will  yield  is  mixed  and 
churned  together. 

f  The  Report  of  the  Patent  Office  for  1847  estimated  the  maple- 
sugar  crop  for  that  year  in  New  Hampshire  at  2,260,000,  in  Vermont  at. 
10,000,000,  and  in  New  York  State  at  12,000,000  lb.  But  it  estimated 
that  of  Michigan,  in  the  same  year,  at  3,250,000  lb.  ;  whereas  the 
returns  published  by  the  legislature  of  that  State  make  it  only  1,750,000 
for  1048,  which  was  a  remarkably  good  sugar  year.  I  doubt,  therefore, 
that  exaggerations  may  exist  also  in  the  returns  for  Vermont  and  New 
York,  as  given  in  ihe  Patent  Office  Report  for  1847,  p.  85,  and  there- 
fore I  have  not  introduced  the  numbers  into  the  text.  The  estimate 
tor  Upper  Canada  is  taken  from  the  Reports  of  the  Canadian  Board  of 
Registration  and  Statistics,  published  at  Montreal  in  1849. 


R 


IN  CANADA  AND  THE  STATES. 


303 


the  sugar  of 

J  neighbour- 
more  novelty 
the  Canadas 
1848,  there 
4,140,667  lb. 
1  inhabitant, 
produced  was 
000,000,  the 
verage  years, 
are  imported 
)00,000  lb.— 
fourth  of  the 

Icle  of  rural 
[n  Michigan, 
,368  lb. ;  and 
ted  to  several 

grower  to  a 

ssesses  about 

ut  a  pound 

Bteemed  Epping 

laturally  during 

[cately  flavoured 

Id  is  mixed  and 

[ted  the  maple- 

),  in  Vermont  at. 

}ut  it  estimated 

whereas  the 

only  1,750,000 

|oubt,  therefore, 

lont  and  New 

|.  85,  and  there- 

The  estimate 

[adian  Board  of 

|9. 


each  tree.  Some  trees  yield  three  or  four  pounds — a 
pound  being  the  estimated  yield  of  each  coulisse  or  tap- 
liole — and  some  trees  being  large  and  strong  enough  to 
bear  tapping  in  several  places.  Some  years  also  are 
much  more  favourable  to  this  crop  than  others,  so  that 
the  estimate  of  a  pound  a  tree  is  taken  as  a  basis  which, 
on  the  whole,  may  be  relied  on  as  fair  for  landlord  and 
tenant.  These  trees  are  rented  out  to  the  sugar-makers 
at  a  rent  of  one-fifth  of  the  produce,  or  one  pound  for 
every  five  trees.  March  and  April  are  the  months  in 
which  the  trees  are  tapped,  and  the  best  weather  is  when 
hard  frost  during  the  night  is  followed  by  a  hot  sun 
during  the  day.  In  Upper  Canada,  from  its  proximity 
to  the  lakes  probably,  the  sugar  weather  is  more  variable, 
and  the  crop  less  certain  than  in  Lower  Canada. 

The  first  sap  that  flows  in  April  is  clear,  colourless, 
and  without  taste.  After  standing  a  day  or  two,  this 
sap  becomes  sweet ;  and  a  few  days  after  the  tree  has 
begun  to  run,  the  sap  flows  sweet.  The  last  sap  flows 
thick,  and  makes  an  inferior  sugar,  called  here  siicre  de 
seve.  When  boiled  carefully  in  earthen-ware  or  glazed 
pots,  the  clear  sap  gives  at  once  a  beautifully  white  sugar, 
and  especially  if  it  be  drained  in  moulds  and  clayed,  as  is 
done  with  common  loaf-sugar.  When  pure  white,  how- 
ever, it  cannot  be  distinguished  from  refined  cane-sugar. 
It  is  generally  preferred  of  a  brown,  and  by  many  of  a 
dark-brown  colour,  because  of  the  rich  maple  flavour  it 
possesses — a  flavour  which,  though  novel  to  a  stranger, 
soon  becomes  very  much  relished.  It  is  an  article  of 
regular  diet  among  the  Lower  Canadians.  On  fast-days, 
bread  and  maple  sugar  are  eaten  in  preference  to  fish. 
In  spring  ic  sells  as  low  as  3d.  a  pound,  but  in  winter  it 
rises  sometimes  as  high  as  6d. 

In  some  of  the  townships  of  the  Eastern  Counties — as 
the  district  is  called  which  lies  between  this  place  and 
the  borders  of  Maine  and  New  Hampshire — maple-groves 


N 


I    i    *: 


',  i|. 


■■ 


304 


FORESTS  OF  SUGAR-MAPLE. 


are  now  planted  for  the  raising  of  sugar.  Such  groves, 
in  the  opinion  of  many,  will  yield  more  profit  than  any 
other  use  to  which  the  land  can  be  put,  as  beneath  the 
trees  an  excellent  pasture  springs  up. 

The  sugar  maple,  Acer  sciccharinum,^  forms  extensive 
natural  forests  on  fertile  soils,  and  especially  on  those  of 
the  Niagara  and  other  limestone  formations  of  this 
region,  though  I  am  not  aware  that  it  particularly  affects 
soils  of  a  calcareous  character.  Into  these  forests,  in 
spring,  the  sugar-makers  plunge,  carrying  with  them  a 
huge  pot,  a  few  buckets  and  other  utensils,  their  axes, 
and  a  supply  of  food.  They  erect  a  shanty  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  most  numerous  maple-trees,  make  inci- 
sions into  as  many  as  they  can  visit  twice  a-day  to  collect 
the  sap,  boil  it  down  to  the  crystallising  point,  and  pour 
it  into  oblong  brick-shaped  moulds.  In  this  way,  in  the 
valley  of  the  Chaudifere,  from  3000  to  5000  lb.  of  sugar 
will  sometimes  be  made  by  a  single  party  of  two  or  three 
men. 

The  day  having  cleared  up,  we  were  enabled  to  take 
a  short  drive  over  the  domain,  as  far  as  the  mountain  of 
Beloeil  —  a  lofty  isolated  ridge,  which  springs  up  in  the 
midst  of  the  plain,  at  a  distance  of  two  or  three  miles 
from  St  Hilaire. 

The  soil  which  prevails  in  the  valley  of  the  Richelieu 
River,  and  over  a  large  portion  of  this  district,  is  a  stiff, 
light-coloured  clay,  which  used  to  be  rich  in  the  produc- 
tion of  wheat,  and  was  esteemed  the  garden  of  Canada. 
It  gradually  became  impoverished  however,  till  in  1835 
the  wheat-midge  appeared,  and  almost  banished  the 
growth  of  wheat.  In  1848  and  1849  the  ravages  of 
the  insect  a  little  abated,  and  small  fields  of  wheat 
arrived  at  comparative  perfection.  Here,  as  in  other 
provinces  and  States,  it  has  been  observed  that  late- 
sown  wheat  is  less  injured  by  the  midge  than  early 
sown — that  which  is  put  in  during  the  third  week  of 


PIGEON-WEED  ON  THE  CLAY  LAND. 


305 


May  escaping,  while  that  which  is  sown  during  the  first 
week  is  destroyed. 

The  whole  district,  from  its  flatness  and  the  tenacity 
of  its  soil,  is  a  fit  subject  for  thorough-drainage  with 
tiles— for  the  manufacture  of  which  the  soil  itself  affords 
abundant  material.  Major  Campbell  has  imported  a  tile- 
machine — the  first,  I  believe,  which  has  been  seen  in  the 
province — and  placed  it  in  the  hands  of  a  brickmaker 
near  Montreal,  who  has  already  made  and  disposed  of 
many  thousands.  On  a  portion  of  his  own  land,  which 
he  had  dried  by  means  of  these  tiles,  Major  Campbell 
showed  me  beautiful  mangold-wurzel ;  while  on  the 
undrained  land  beside  it,  scarcely  a  plant  had  thriven. 
Eicher  clover  also  had  come  up  on  another  drained  spot, 
and  less  of  the  pigeon-weed,  as  it  is  here  called,  with 
which  this  clay  land  is  infested. 

There  are  few  of  the  evils  which  afflict  the  practical 
farmer,  in  the  management  of  his  land  and  stock,  which 
do  not  afford  illustrations  of  the  money-value  of  know- 
ledge to  himself — and  of  the  economical  importance  to 
his  country  that  he  should  possess  it.  I  may  advert  for 
a  moment  to  the  lesson  taught  us  by  the  weed  of  which 
I  have  just  spoken. 

The  Lithospermum  arvense^  Com-gromwell  or  stone- 
weed — called  in  North  America  by  the  various  names  of 
pigeon-weed,  red-root,  steen-crout,  stony-seed,  and 
wheat-thief — is  said  to  be  a  European  importation, 
brought  in  probably  with  unclean  seed-wheat  from 
France,  or  Germany,  or  England.  Thirty  years  ago,  it 
was  almost  unknown  ;  now  in  many  places  it  usurps  the 
ground,  and  especially  overruns  the  districts  which  have 
been  accustomed  to  the  growth  of  wheat.  But  it  is  a 
punishment  which  has  followed  the  practice  of  the  igno- 
r<ant  and  slovenly  farmer,  who  has  paid  little  attention 
either  to  cleaning  his  land  at  all,  or  to  the  right  way  of 

VOL.  I.  u 


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I 


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I'll 

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k 


nj 


k 


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B06 


MODE  OP  ITS  GROWTH. 


doing  it,  and  who  has  continued  for  a  series  of  years  to  take 
successive  crops  of  wheat  from  the  same  exhausted  fields. 

The  peculiarity  of  this  weed  consists  in  the  hard 
covering  with  which  its  seed  or  nut  is  covered ;  in  the 
time  at  which  it  comes  up  and  ripens  its  seed ;  and  in  the 
superficial  way  in  which  its  roots  spread.  The  hardness 
of  its  covering  is  such  that  "  neither  the  gizzard  of  a 
fowl  nor  the  stomach  of  an  ox  can  destroy  it,"  and  that 
it  will  lie  for  years  in  the  ground  without  perishing,  till 
the  opportunity  of  germinating  occurs.  It  grows  up  very 
little  in  spring,  but  it  shoots  up  and  ripens  in  autumn, 
and  its  roots  spread  through  the  surface-soil  only,  and 
exhaust  the  food  by  which  the  young  wheat  should  be 
nourished.  A  knowledge  of  these  facts  teach  —  First, 
that  unless  care  be  taken  to  exclude  the  seed  from  the 
fairm,  it  will  remain  a  troublesome  weed  for  many  years, 
even  to  an  industrious,  careful,  and  intelligent  cultivator. 
In  the  second  place,  that  spring  ploughing  will  do  little 
good  in  the  way  of  extirpating  it,  as  at  that  season  it  has 
scarcely  begun  to  grow.  Thirdly,  that  raising  wheat  year 
after  year  allows  it  to  grow  and  ripen  with  the  wheat,  and 
to  seed  the  ground  more  thickly  every  successive  crop.  It 
is  said  that,  when  it  has  once  got  into  the  land,  two  or 
three  successive  crops  of  wheat  will  give  the  pigeon- 
weed  entire  possession  of  the  soil.  It  is  not,  therefore, 
the  immediately  exhausting  effects  of  the  successive  crops 
of  corn  alone  which  has  almost  banished  the  wheat- 
culture  from  a  large  part  of  North  America,  where  this 
grain  used  to  be  produced  in  great  abundance,  but  the 
indirect  or  after  consequences  of  such  a  mode  of  culture 
in  a  considerable  degree  also. 

In  a  previous  chapter,  when  describing  the  geological 
structure  and  attendant  agricultural  character  of  western 
New  York,  I  have  described  the  Marcellus  shales  as 
forming  the  surface  of  the  upland  country,  immediately 
behind  the  wheat-region  properly  so  called.       These 


ITS  SEED  MIXED  WITH   AMERICAN  OIL-CAKE.     307 


dark-coloured  shales  form  stiff  soils,  which  produce  good 
grass,  but  are  difficult — naturally,  or  have  become  so  by 
unskilful  treatment  —  to  retain  profitably  in  arable  cul- 
ture. In  Yates  County,  upon  this  formation,  the  pigeon- 
weed  has  become  in  some  places  almost  the  lord  of  the 
soil.  It  was  unknown  there,  as  elsewhere,  thirty  years 
ago ;  now  "  hundreds  of  bushels  of  the  seed  are  pur- 
chased at  the  Yates  County  oil-mill ;  and  if  it  were  worth 
Ss.,  instead  of  Is.  6d.  a  bushel,  these  hundreds  would  be 
thousands ! " 

The  reader  will  observe,  in  the  concluding  words  of 
this  quotation,  how  one  evil  leads  to  another.  The  pur- 
chase of  this  seed  at  the  oil-mills  can  only  be  for  the 
purpose  of  adult'^^ation.  I  have  examined  samples  of 
American  linseed-cake  in  which  seeds  were  to  be  recog- 
nised which  I  could  not  name.  They  might,  I  then 
supposed,  be  those  of  the  dodder,  a  parasite  which  infests 
the  flax  plant  in  some  localities;  but  they  might  also  be 
other  cheap  seeds  purposely  mixed  with  the  linseed. 
Those  who  are  in  the  habit  of  buying  cheap  American 
cake  may  think  this  point  deserving  of  their  attention. 
As  oil-cakes  are  chiefly  bought  by  farmers,  perhaps  it  is 
only  a  kind  of  retributive  justice  that  a  set  of  idle 
farmers  in  one  country  should  thus  be  the  means  of 
punishing  a  less  discerning  set  in  another. 

One  purpose  for  which  I  have  dwelt  upon  this  weed  is 
to  show  that  a  knowledge  of  the  habits,  or  physiologi- 
cal history,  of  our  common  plants  is  as  necessary  to  the 
improvement  of  the  art  of  culture,  of  the  condition  of 
those  who  practise  it,  and  of  the  agricultural  productive- 
ness of  a  country,  as  almost  any  other  kind  of  know- 
ledge. No  one  will  readily  accuse  me  of  a  wish  to 
undervalue  the  usefulness  of  chemistry  to  agriculture, 
and  yet  I  have  often  had  occasion  to  regret  the  evil 
influence  of  opinions  hastily  expressed  by  ill-informed 
persons — as  if  this  were  the  only  branch  of  knowledge 


M.1 


4[V 


!■:!! 


'I  Mi' 


i 


!',I! 


I  llr 


308 


OATS  AND  PIGS  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 


which  was  necessary  to  bring  this  most  important  art  to 
speedy  perfection.  It  may  be  partly  conceit,  but  it  is 
chiefly  ignorance,  which  has  led  many  young  persons, 
slightly  acquainted  with  chemistry,  to  propagate  crude 
notions  as  to  the  omnipotence  of  chemistry,  and  of  the 
researches  of  the  laboratory,  in  determining  all  difficult, 
doubtful,  or  disputed  questions  in  practical  agriculture. 
The  longer  a  cautious  and  safe  man  lives,  the  less  will 
he  value  extemporaneous  opinions  on  matters  which  fall 
within  the  range  of  what  may  properly  be  called  scien- 
tific agriculture — and  the  wider  will  appear  the  range  of 
knowledge,  theoretical  and  practical,  which  is  necessary 
to  the  accurate  solution,  even  of  what  some  look  upon  as 
simple  and  superficial  questions. 

Among  the  crops  which,  in  Lower  Canada,  have 
taken  the  place  of  the  formerly  abundant  wheat,  the 
oat  is  one  of  the  most  important.  I  did  not  learn  what 
weight  they  here  average  per  bushel,  but  the  price, 
during  the  last  year,  has  never  exceeded  14d.  currency 
per  bushel.  The  Canadian  farmer  is  content  to  sell  his 
oats  for  this  price,  and  to  buy  a  barrel  of  pork  with  the 
proceeds,  rather  than  expend  his  surplus  grain  and  time 
in  feeding  his  own  pig  for  his  own  family,  and  making 
manure  for  his  farm  at  the  same  time. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  long-limbed  pigs  of  the  French 
settlers  in  Madawaska.  The  pigs  of  this  district,  like 
their  masters,  are  full  cousins-german  to  those  which 
inhabit  the  Upper  St  John.  The  snout  and  the  legs, 
as  they  say  here,  run  a  race  for  length.  The  native 
cattle  "^-re  also  poor,  and  the  starvation-limit  system  of 
feeding,  generally  practised  a  century  ago  in  Scotland, 
is  still  in  full  force  in  colder  Canada.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  the  cattle-shows,  which  are  now  promoted  by  local 
societies,  and  encouraged  by  legislative  grants,  may  be 
the  means  of  gradually  introducing  a  better  system  of 
feeding,  with  more  profitable  breeds  of  stock. 


VIEW   FROM   BELCEIL. 


309 


To  obtain  a  view  of  the  country,  I  climbed  the  hill 
of  Belceil.  On  the  top  is  a  cross  and  chapel,  and  it 
is  a  place  of  popular  pilgrimage.  It  is  a  pleasant,  but 
a  steep  and  laborious  climb.  The  ascent  is  divided 
into  fourteen  parts  or  stations,  at  each  of  which  is,  or 
was,  a  cross,  bearing  an  inscription  having  reference  to 
the  journey  of  our  Saviour,  as  he  bore  the  cross  to 
the  place  of  crucifixion.  Pious  devotees,  who  visit  the 
mountain  in  considerable  numbers,  rest  a  while  at  each 
— as  at  the  similar  stations  on  the  Rigi  and  other  places 
of  pilgrimage  in  Roman  Catholic  Switzerland — and, 
while  they  rest,  repeat  the  appropriate  prayers.  These 
are  printed  and  sold  under  the  title  of  "  Meditations 
and  prayers  adapted  to  the  stations  of  the  Holy  Way  of 
the  Cross."  Without  underrating  the  efficacy  of  these 
devotions,  the  site  of  the  chapel  and  place  of  pilgrim- 
age are  well  selected.  The  healthful  exercise,  the  free 
air,  and  the  lovely  view  from  the  summit  of  the  moun- 
tain, must  lighten  the  heart,  and  send  home  the  most 
sorrowful  and  careworn  with  a  more  cheerful  spirit. 

Looking  towards  Montreal,  the  River  Richelieu  flowed 
at  my  feet,  far  down  in  the  valley — a  long,  scarcely 
sinuous,  silver  ribbon,  singularly  narrowing  as  it  descends 
from  its  source  in  Lake  Champlain  on  the  south,  to  its 
confluence  with  the  St  Lawrence  at  Sorel,  far  away  to 
the  north.  On  its  surface,  a  few  specks  showed  where 
the  passing  craft  were  carrying  the  produce  of  Canada 
or  the  merchandise  of  Europe  to  their  respective  desti- 
nations. Villages  and  church-spires  occurred  at  inter- 
vals above  its  banks ;  and  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  on 
either  hand,  a  seemingly  flat  plain  extended  from  the 
Richelieu  to  the  St  Lawrence,  and  beyond  this — broken 
only  by  the  height  of  Mont  Royal — to  the  north-west, 
into  the  counties  on  the  left  bank  of  the  great  river, 
till  the  sky  seemed  to  rest  on  the  still-extending  flat. 

Turning  towards  the  north-east,  the  same  level  land 


'  1   ■'  i  I   ' 


'.,S\ 


|i! 


i 


! 


:i? 


810 


THE  ST   LAWRENCE  FLATS, 


stretched  away  on  the  other  side  of  Belojil  towards  St 
Hyacinth ;  and,  in  the  interval,  flowing  also  towards  the 
north,  ran  the  smaller  river  Yaniaska,  pouring  its  waters 
into  the  St  Lawrence  in  the  middle  of  Lake  St  Peter, 
between  the  mouths  of  the  Richelieu  and  the  St  Francis. 
Over  this  eastern  part  of  the  plain  arose  occasional 
isolated  mountain  elevations,  which  towards  St  Hyacinth 
in  front,  and  in  the  direction  of  Lake  Champlain  on  the 
right,  appeared  to  thicken  into  clusters  or  ridges  of 
loftier  elevations. 

This  wide  flat  margin,  of  varying  breadth,  which  on 
either  side  girdles  the  St  Lawrence,  accompanies  it 
along  a  great  part  of  its  course,  follows  the  Richelieu  up 
to  Lake  Champlain,  and  thence  stretches  along  its 
shores  towards  the  city  of  Albany  and  the  river  Hudson. 
It  is  a  post-tertiary  region,  the  latest  elevated  part  of 
north-eastern  America,  and  contains  the  remains  of 
marine  animals,  which  are  still  living  in  the  sea-mouths 
of  the  St  Lawrence,  and  along  the  Atlantic  borders  of 
the  New  England  States.  Li  this  part  of  Canada  it 
rests  on  the  Utica  slates,  and  Lorraine  shales  of  the  New 
York  geologists,  through  and  among  which,  beds  and 
domes  of  trap  occasionally  force  their  way,  forming  the 
isolated  hills  of  which  I  have  spoken.  This  Canadian 
plain  exhibits,  for  the  most  part,  a  surface-soil  of  a  pale 
yellowish-coloured  clay,  more  or  less  heavy.  Along  Lake 
Champlain,  however,  and  at  higher  levels  in  the  States 
of  New  York  and  Vermont,  and  towafds  the  Canadian 
border,  the  subjacent  clay-deposit  is  covered  with  drifted 
sand  and  gravel,  of  various  depths,  which  give  to  the 
available  soil  a  more  open  character,  degenerating  in 
some  places  —  as  between  Albany  and  Schnectady, 
already  described — into  an  almost  worthless  pine-bearing 
sand. 

When  first  cleared,  this  post-tertiary  belt  of  level  clay 
land — the  St  Lawrence  Flats,  we  may  call  them — pro- 


FORMERLY  THE  GRANARY  OF  CANADA. 


3U 


duced  rich  harvests  of  wheat,  and,  over  a  very  large 
portion  of  their  surface,  continued  for  many  years  to 
yield  abundant  crops  at  little  comparative  cost.  Hence 
the  banks  of  the  St  Lawrence  were  deservedly  called,  in 
former  days,  the  granary  of  Canada.  The  lower  province 
could  then  afford,  therefore,  to  export  much  grain  ;  and 
among  lesser  articles  of  production,  linseed  was  one  of 
which  large  quantities  were  at  that  time  shipped  to 
Europe.  Now,  the  shipment  of  either  of  these  articles, 
the  produce  of  Lower  Canada,  may  be  said  to  have 
virtually  ceased. 

We  need  not  inquire  in  Canada  after  any  special 
causes  for  a  change  almost  equally  marked  in  every 
other  part  of  north-eastern  America  which  has  been  as 
long  under  the  cultivation  of  European  settlers.  Every- 
where idleness,  ignorance,  and  an  avaricious  spirit,  on 
the  part  of  the  cultivators,  have  led  to  the  same  results 
in  diminishing  the  ability  or  disposition  of  the  soil  to 
produce  good  crops  of  wheat.  To  speak  figuratively, 
the  spirit  of  fertility  is  every  year  retiring  farther 
towards  the  west,  shrinking  from  the  abusive  contact 
of  European  industry,  towards  the  head-waters  of  the 
Mississippi  and  the  St  Lawrence. 

And  yet  the  peculiar  tenure  of  land  in  Lower  Canada, 
if  it  be  not  necessary  to  account  for  the  existing  condi- 
tion of  the  soil,  may  possibly  both  have  aided  in  bringing 
it  into  that  condition,  and  may  stand  in  the  way  of  an 
easy  or  rapid  improvement  or  restoration  of  its  produc- 
tive capabilities. 

Of  the  whole  lands  in  Lower  Canada,  only  eleven  and 
and  a  half  millions  of  acres  have  yet  been  disposed  of ; 
and  of  these,  seven  and  a  half  millions  are  grants  in  fief 
and  seigneurie  by  the  crown  of  France.  Of  the  remaining 
four  millions  of  acres  of  granted  lands,  many  of  which 
are  large  grants — such  as  that  of  seven  hundred  thousand 
acres  in  the  eastern  counties  to  the  British  American 


j! 


I    1' 


'\    \ 


8t2 


RESERVED   RIGHTS  OF  THE  SEIGNEUR. 


Land  Company — only  one  and  three  quarter  millions 
are  held  by  resident  proprietors ;  and,  of  these,  only  about 
six  hundred  thousand  acres  are  in  actual  cultivation. 
By  far  the  largest  portion — the  great  bulk  of  the  land, 
we  may  say  —  is  held  by  the  habitants  under  the 
seigneurs  ;  and  this  comprises  those  tracts  of  country 
which,  in  the  early  settlement,  were  considered  the  most 
desirable  —  in  fact,  all  the  old-settled  and  originally 
productive  wheat-lands  on  the  St  Lawrence. 

The  rights  reserved  by  the  lords  of  the  soil  vary,  I 
believe,  in  kind  and  amount ;  but  a  fine  of  one-twelfth* 
upon  every  sale  or  succession,  the  right  of  pre-emption 
by  the  seigneur  in  every  case  of  sale,  by  payment  of  the 
price  oflfered  by  the  highest  bidder,  and  the  annual 
reserved  rent,  are  the  chief  burdens  to  which  the  holder 
is  isubjected. 

In  the  first  instance,  the  seignorial  tenure  is  an 
advantage  to  the  farmer,  and  affords  facilities  for 
settling  in  life  to  the  young  man  who  is  destitute  of 
capital.  He  goes  to  the  lord,  obtains  permission  to 
occupy  a  portion  of  wild  land  which  is  measured  off,  on 
condition  of  paying  a  small  annual  rent ;  builds  himself  a 
hut  with  the  help  of  his  friends,  and  begins  to  clear  and 
sow.  With  a  little  provision,  and  a  few  tools,  he  can 
thus  begin  the  world  with  scarcely  a  penny  of  money  in 
his  pocket.  So  far  the  seignorial  tenure  is  favourable  to 
the  poor  Canadian,  though  it  is  unsuited  to  the  wants 

*  It  is  interesting  to  observe  how  important  a  place  the  payment  of 
a  twelfth  or  a  fourteenth  used  to  occupy  in  the  social  arrangements  of 
our  forefathoi's  in  purely  agricultural  districts.  The  Seigneur  here 
takes  one-twelfth  or  o-  3-fourteenth  of  the  corn  for  grinding  it  at  his 
mill,  to  which,  as  on  many  estates  still  in  our  own  island,  the  tenantry 
are  bound  to  take  their  com,  and  he  receives  a  twelfth  of  the  whole 
value  of  the  laud  at  each  death  or  sale  {tods  et  ventea.)  In  Himgary, 
at  the  present  moment,  near  the  course  of  the  Danube,  the  rural 
labourer  receives  one-fourteenth  for  cutting  the  corn,  and  again  one- 
fourteenth  for  thrashing  it. 


iUR. 


AMOUNT   AND  EVIL  OF  RESERVED   RENTS. 


313 


,rter  millions 
e,  only  about 
I  cultivation. 

of  the  land, 
s  under  the 
s  of  country 
!red  the  most 
id  originally 
). 
5  soil  vary,  I 

one-twelfth* 
■  pre-emption 
■tyraent  of  the 
1  the  annual 
ich  the  holder 

tenure  is  an 
facilities  for 
s  destitute  of 
Ipermission  to 
isured  off,  on 
lilds  himself  a 
8  to  clear  and 

tools,  he  can 

T  of  money  in 

favourable  to 

to  the  wants 

le  the  payment  of 
arrangements  of 
e  Seigneur  here 
grinding  it  at  his 
and,  the  tenantry 
bh  of  the  whole 
In  Himgary, 
►annbe,  the  rural 
n,  and  again  one- 


and  wishes  of  the  emigrant  who,  coming  with  a  small 
capital,  wishes  to  buy  the  fee-simple  of  a  farm  he  can 
thenceforth  call  his  own. 

The  reserved  rent  varies  considerably.  In  the  old 
grants  it  is  fixed  at  a  mere  nominal  sum.  The  farms,  as 
I  have  already  remarked,  are  long  and  narrow.  They 
are  generally  three  lineal  arpents  in  breadth,  fronting 
the  road,  and  forty,  thirty,  or  twenty,  in  depth.  For 
these  lots,  the  reserved  rent  averages  about  twopence 
sterling  an  acre  ;.but,  in  many  recent  concessions,  it  is  as 
high  as  fivepence  sterling,  or  sixpence  currency,  an  acre. 
Added  to  the  reserved  twelfths,  and  other  privileges  of  the 
seigneur,  this  latter  rent-charge  is  by  no  means  a  light 
one  in  Canada.  Such  a  money-charge,  being  fixed, 
would  not  with  us,  in  most  places,  seriously  affect  agri- 
cultural improvement ;  nor  would  it  prove  a  serious 
hindrance  to  the  introduction  of  a  better  system  of 
culture  in  the  exhausted  flats  of  the  St  Lawrence,  were 
it  not  that  the  farmers  are  already  very  poor.  This 
small  annual  payment,  therefore,  is  felt  as  a  great 
burden,  and  is  a  source  of  much  and  general  complaint 
— though  I  have  not  heard  that  they  have  actually,  any- 
where in  Lower  Canada,  risen  in  special  rebellion 
against  the  payment  of  what  must  be  considered  to  be 
just  debts,  as  their  more  enlightened  and  energetic 
Protestant  neighbours,  the  New  Yorkers,  lately  did  in 
regard  to  the  Renselaer  rents.  It  is  important,  as 
indicating  the  general  feeling  in  regard  to  these 
reserved  rights,  even  among  the  French  population,  tLat 
in  the  Rebellion  of  1837,  Dr  Robert  Nelson,  in  his 
manifesto  to  the  Lower  Canadians,  declared  "  for  inde- 
pendence, a  republican  government,  the  confiscation  of 
the  crown  and  church  lands  and  the  possessions  of  the 
Canada  Company,  the  abolition  of  seignorial  rights^  and 
imprisonment  for  debt."  This  promised  abolition  was, 
no  doubt,  intended  as  a  bribe  to  those  who  had  services 


i 


I 


Il  ll 


314 


BRITISH   AMERICAN   LAND  COMPANY. 


to  render  in  payment  of  the  lands  they  held ;  but  it, 
nevertheless,  indicates  that  the  existence  of  seigiiorial 
rights  is  considered  a  grievance  by  the  people,  and  that, 
like  our  former  tithe-payments,  though  strictly  just,  they 
will  stand  in  the  way  of  the  agricultural  improvenjcnt  of 
the  country.  Every  encouragement,  therefore,  should 
be  given  to  the  buying  up  of  the  annual  rent-charges, 
and  enfranchisement  should  be  made  compulsory  as 
regards  the  fines  on  transfers,  the  right  of  pre-emption, 
of  milling  the  corn,  and  other  minor  claims  of  the 
seigneur. 

Sherbrooke,  on  the  River  St  Francis,  and  on  the  pro- 
posed continuation  beyond  St  Hyacinth  of  the  St  Law- 
rence and  Atlantic  railway,  is  near  the  centre  of  the 
grant  made  to  the  British  American  Land  Company, 
which  I  have  already  incidentally  noticed.  This  com- 
pany prefers  to  sell  their  lands  at  from  10s.  to  ISs.  an 
acre,  to  give  credit  to  the  purchaser  for  ten  years,  on 
payment  of  6  per  cent  interest  on  the  purchase-money, 
and,  at  the  close  of  this  period,  to  receive  the  price  in 
four  yearly  instalments,  bearing  interest  also  while  un- 
paid, at  the  rate  of  6  per  cent  per  annum.  This  tedious 
and  complicated  mode  of  payment  does  not  appear  to 
have  found  much  favour  with  purchasers  or  settlers,  and, 
with  the  inland  situation  of  the  district,  and  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  a  French  population,  has  probably  con- 
tributed to  the  very  slow  rate  at  which  land  has  been 
disposed  of  in  these  eastern  counties,  and  at  which  its 
market-value  has  increased. 

In  the  Report  published  by  the  Board  of  Registration 
and  Statistics  at  Montreal,  in  1849,  it  is  stated  of  the 
county  of  Sherbrooke,  that  "  the  registrar  does  not  know 
of  a  single  new  settler  having  located  himself  in  any  of 
the  new  townships  of  the  county ;  nor  does  he  think 
there  has  been  any  increase  in  the  value  of  lands  for  ten 
years."     This  is  a  very  unpromising  account  of  the 


FEW   BRiriSII   SETTLERS. 


315 


district,  in  which  a  large  part  of  the  grant  of  the  Land 
Company  i»  situated,  and  does  not  at  all  encourage 
intending  emigrants  to  settle  there.  Of  the  adjoining 
county  of  ShefFord,  in  which  also  they  own  much  land, 
it  is  said  in  the  same  report,  that  about  1000  acres  of 
the  land  sold  during  the  year  has  been  to  new  settlers, 
at  the  rate  of  15s.  to  20s.  currency  an  acre,  and  that  the 
increase  in  the  value  of  land,  within  ten  years,  had  been 
58.  or  6s.  an  acre. 

These  eastern  counties  of  Lower  Canada  were  at  one 
time  brought  prominently  before  the  British  public,  in 
consecjuence  of  the  late  Mr  Gait  having  gone  out  to 
Canada  as  agent  to  the  Land  Company.  But  if  we  may 
judge  from  the  proclamation  issued  by  Dr  Nelson,  during 
the  time  of  the  Rebellion  of  1837,  such  companies  are  not 
very  popular  with  the  French  Canadians,  nor  settlers 
upon  their  lands  regarded  with  much  favour.  And 
without  supposing  that  there  is  anything  wrong  either 
in  the  existence  or  management  of  these  companies,  we 
can  understand  why  the  old  settlers  should  look  with 
disfavour  upon  bodies  of  men  whose  professed  object  is 
to  bring  in  emigrants  of  another  blood,  tongue,  and 
faith,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  lessen  the  facilities  and 
enhance  the  expense  of  settling  their  own  increasing 
families. 

I  regretted  that  ray  leisure  did  not  permit  me  to  visit 
Sherbrooke,  for  the  purpose  of  inspecting  the  district  in 
person.  It  is  said,  and  I  should  think  with  much  reason, 
that  the  Company's  grarc,  along  with  the  whole  of  the 
inland  region  of  which  it  forms  a  part,  will  be  greatly 
benefited  by  the  completion  of  the  St  Lawrence  and 
Atlantic  railway  now  in  progress. 

Sept.  27. — Unable  longer  to  avail  myself  of  the  kind 
hospitality  of  Major  Campbell,  I  left  St  Hilaire  at  8  a.m., 
and  returned  by  railway  to  Montreal,  along  with  Mr 
Wettenhall.    I  would  strongly  recommend  flying  visitoi-s 


1  •'    ! 


III 


a 


i\¥^ 


aw, ., 


ilii""" 


!    '4 


t 


! 


hi, 


316 


FRENCH  MORE  HOME-LOVINa. 


to  Montreal  to  devote  a  day  to  an  excursion  to  St 
Hilaire,  and  a  climb  to  the  top  of  Belceil.  They  will 
be  able  to  procure  agreeable  accommodation  at  an  hotel 
which  the  seigneur  was  building  at  the  time  of  my  visit, 
in  a  beautiful  situation,  for  the  accommodation  of  rail- 
way tourists. 

In  the  afternoon  I  visited,  in  company  with  some  agri- 
cultural friends,  the  brickmaker  in  whose  hands  the  tile- 
machine  of  Major  Campbell  had  been  placed.  He  had 
this  season  made  40,000  tiles,  all  of  which  he  expected 
to  sell  at  the  price  of  six  to  eight  dollars  a  thousand, 
according  to  the  size.  It  was  chiefly  a  few  British 
farmers  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Montreal  who  had 
hitherto  tried  them,  but  so  far  with  much  advantage.  I 
am  satisfied  that,  in  all  the  St  Lawrence  flats,  they  are 
to  be  a  means  of  much  agricultural  improvement.  As 
they  become  more  in  demand,  their  price  at  the  tile-work 
will  diminish,  and  the  cost  of  executing  thorough-drain- 
age be  in  consequence  lessened. 

The  plea  will  not  be  so  generally  urged  here  as  it  is 
in  the  New  England  States,  and  in  that  of  New  York, 
against  the  expenditure  of  money  in  improvement, 
"  that  the  land,  when  drained,  will  not  sell  for  an  equi- 
valently  increased  price  in  the  market."  For,  though  it 
may  be  equally  true  here  as  in  the  States,  yet  the 
French  Canadians  are  a  more  fixed,  home-loving  race  of 
people,  not  so  given  to  change,  and  would  therefore,  if 
they  had  the  money,  be  more  willing  to  expend  it  in 
improving  and  embellishing  the  houses  of  themselves 
and  their  children.  But  the  vast  number  of  mortgages 
with  which  the  farmers  in  Lowqr  Canada  are  oppressed 
may  prove  an  obstacle,  which  only  a  board  of  "  Com- 
missioners for  the  Sale  of  Encumbered  Estates"  will  be 
able  to  overcome. 

I  had  only  time  left  to  take  a  hasty  drive  up  and 
around  the  hill  of  Montreal — an  excursion  to  which  I 


COUNTRY  OF  THE  OTTOWA. 


317 


would  gladly  have  devoted  an  entire  day.  The  rocky 
surface  of  the  island  consists,  for  the  most  part,  of  the 
same  Trenton  limestone  on  which  Kingston  stands ;  but 
it  is  interstratified  with  greenstone  trap,  of  which  an 
outburst  forms  the  Mont  Royal.  Independent  of  the 
drift,  which  deeply  covers  the  hollows  and  slopes  of  the 
island,  and  modifies  its  natural  surface,  there  are  in  the 
mingled  debris  of  these  two  rocks  materials  enough  to 
account  for  the  fertility  which  in  ancient  times  made 
it  the  central  residence  of  the  Indian  tribes,  and  has 
since  secured  it  the  frequent  eulogies  of  French  and 
other  writers. 

At  half-past  six  P.M.,  I  went  on  board  the  steamboat 
for  Quebec.  The  weather  was  thick,  dark,  and  rainy, 
and  as  I  knew  no  one  on  board,  I  retired  to  my  state- 
room at  seven.  After  a  rainy  night-voyage  of  a  hundred 
and  sixty  miles,  during  \f/hich  nothing  of  the  country  on 
either  side  of  the  river  was  to  be  seen,  I  found  myself 
in  twelve  hours  in  a  quiet  pleasant  room  in  the  St 
George's  Hotel  at  Quebec 

In  leaving  Montreal,  it  was  a  matter  of  much  regret 
to  me  that  I  had  been  obliged  to  forego  the  pleasure  of 
making  a  tour  up  the  Ottowa — a  river  which  is  inferior 
in  size  only  to  the  St  Lawrence,  which  runs  through  a 
country  interesting  in  very  many  respects,  and  is  the 
natural  outlet  for  the  drainage  of  an  area  of  eighty 
thousand  square  miles.  The  vast  region  to  which  this 
river  and  its  branches  aiford  the  means  of  internal  navi- 
gation, and  of  communication  with  external  markets,  is 
already  extensively  settled.  It  has  also  a  rapidly  increas- 
ing commercial  capital  of  12,000  inhabitants  at  Bytown, 
where  the  Rideau  Canal — 150  miles  in  length — leaves 
the  Ottowa  for  Kingston,  on  Lake  Ontario.  When 
the  first  period  of  settlement  has  passed  over,  during 
which  the  lumber-trade  occupies  the  sole  attention  of  nearly 
all  the  settlers,  and  the  population  shall  have  become 


■I'!     ■•    I 


1.6 


':;  1'  ; 


318 


MIXTURE  OP  RACES  AND 


mainly  agricultural,  this  district  will  assume  a  perma- 
nent importance,  in  reference  to  Canadian  strength  and 
resources,  which  will  every  year  rise  in  public  estima- 
tion. 

I  have  alluded  but  very  slightly  to  the  political  differ- 
ences and  excitement  of  which  Montreal  was  still,  to 
some  degree,  the  scene  at  the  period  of  my  visit.  I  had 
as  yet  enjoyed  too  few  opportunities  of  acquiring  a 
knowledge  of  existing  local  and  provincial  circumstances, 
feelings,  and  prejudices,  and  of  their  antecedents,  to 
enable  me  to  form  a  satisfactory  opinion  as  to  the  right 
and  the  wrong  of  all  that  had  been  done. 

In  judging  of  public  events  that  fall  out  in  a  place 
like  Montreal,  however,  much  allowance  ought  to  be 
made  for  the  peculiarly  heterogeneous  character  of  the 
population,  and  the  frequent  opposition  of  their  interests. 
Thus  the  population  of  50,000,  which  the  city  is  said  to 
contain,  consists  approximately  of — 


French  Canadians, 

British  Canadians, 

British  and  Irish  born , 

Germans — United  States  born.  &c. 


20,000 

10,000 

15,000 

5,000 

50,000 


Out  of  these  different  nationalities  arise,  as  separate 
and  opposing  parties — 

1.  Those  of  British,  or  Anglo-Saxon,  against  those  of 
French  blood. 

2.  The  Canadians,  born  of  British  blood — the  United 
Empire  Loyalists,  &c. — against  the  home-born,  or  native 
British.  The  scat  of  these  parties  is  properly  in  Upper 
Canada ;  but  Montreal  contains  a  large  section  belonging 
to  each. 

3.  Among  the  French — the  party  of  Papineau,  op- 
posed to  British  connection,  against  that  of  Lafontaine, 
which  at  present  is  in  favour  of  such  connection. 


PARTIES  IN   MONTREAL. 


319 


4.  Then  partly  interfering  and  partly  coinciding  with 
these  are  the  Radical  and  Conservative  political  parties. 

5.  The  religious  parties — the  Protestant  against  the 
Eoman  Catholic. 

6.  Also  in  Montreal,  as  a  seat  of  commerce,  there  are 
the  agricultural  and  commercial  parties ;  among  whom 
the  free-trade  movement,  as  with  us,  but  especially  in 
its  relations  to  timber,  and  to  reciprocity  with  the  States, 
has  been  a  great  bone  of  contention.  It  is  the  latter  of 
these  parties  which  has  mainly  supported  the  Annexation 
movement. 

7.  And,  lastly,  city  and  municipal  affairs  have  formed 
parties  purely  local,  whose  feelings  on  these  matters 
complicate  the  other  differences. 

In  these  nuraerou  narties,  among  a  small  population 
of  50,000,  just  lar^'f'  >r;_;jh  to  furnish  materials  for 
giving  a  certain  degr.  •*-'  importance  and  consistency 
to  each,  without  affording  a  marked  preponderance  to 
any,  there  are  surely  abundant  materials  for  easy  dis- 
order and  sudden  excitement.  And  if  it  be  farther  the 
case,  as  I  was  generally  informed — correctly,  as  I  should 
judge  from  my  own  limited  experience — that  in  Montreal 
all  these  parties  are  very  bitter  against  each  other  on 
occasions  of  excitement,  and,  even  in  ordinary  times, 
co-operate  little  with  each  other,  the  wonder  will  be 
rather  that  the  city  should  have  remained  so  long  quiet, 
than  that  a  single  boiling  over  should  have  satisfied  a 
perpetually  simmering  population. 

It  must  be  a  very  angelic  Government,  indeed,  that 
could  please  so  divided  a  people,  a  very  talented  one 
that  could  persuade,  and  a  very  powerful  one  that  could 
restrain  or  control  them.  Military  men,  like  other 
leeches,  are  naturally  partial  to  their  own  mode  of  cure, 
and  blame  the  Government  for  want  of  energy  and  deci- 
sion in  not  employing  the  strong  arm  to  repress  them 
during  the  late  disturbances.     But  people  at  home  will 


I'r 


mm 


320       POLITICAL  CONDUCT  OF  THE  BUITISH-BORN. 

scarcely  condemn  a  governor  for  preferring  to  attain  his 
ends  by  peaceful  means,  rather  than  by  force  of  blood- 
shed. So  far  as  I  have  had  the  materials  for  forming  a 
judgment,  it  appears  to  me  to  have  been  not  less  wise 
and  prudent  than  humane  to  quit  the  city  altogether, 
and  to  leave  it  to  make  up  its  own  intra-mural  differences. 
A  punishment  which  must  affect  their  pockets  will  be 
far  more  felt  than  one  which  might  have  robbed  the  city 
of  a  few  of  its  most  worthless  lives,  and  will  sooner  work 
its  way  to  the  understandings  of  its  inhabitants. 

There  was  one  point,  however,  in  regard  to  the  Cana- 
dian differences,  which,  from  my  previous  ignorance  oi' 
the  province,  was  incomprehensible  to  me,  and  upon 
which  I  anxiously  sought  to  be  enlightened.  When  the 
rebellion  broke  out  among  the  French  Canadians,  the 
Upper  Canadians,  and  generally  those  of  British  blood, 
took  part  against  them.  But  in  the  division  in  the 
House  of  Assembly  upon  the  Lower  Canada  Rebellion 
Losses  Bill — the  cause  of  all  the  disturbance — a  majority 
of  the  Upper  Canadian  members,  of  British  blood,  and 
many  of  them  British-born,  voted  with  the  French  mem- 
bers of  Lower  Canada  in  favour  of  the  measure.  It  was 
not,  therefore,  a  war  of  races,  as  it  had  been  represented 
at  home.  But  how  came  those  who  were  unanimous  In 
opposing  the  rebellion  to  be  found  voting  with  those  who 
had  favoured,  or  actually  supported  and  participated  in 
it?  I  put  this  question  to  a  friend  of  mine,  one  of  the 
Upper  Canada  members,  himself  British-born,  who  had 
voted  for  the  obnoxious  measure,  and  his  explanation 
was  to  the  following  effect : — 

"  For  a  long  series  of  years.  Upper  Canada  was  under 
the  dominating  rule  of  what  was  called  the  Family  Com- 
pact. Home-born  Canadians,  and  a  certain  number  of 
high  officials,  divided  all  offices  and  patronage  among 
themselves,  and  did  everything  in  their  power  to  keep 
the  British-born  from  participating  in  the  exercise  of 


ALLEGED  BEWARDING  OF  REBELS. 


321 


ae,  one  of  the 


influence,  or  in  the  sweets  of  office.  The  few  British 
who  gained  access  to  the  Assembly,  therefore,  were 
naturally  driven  into  opposition,  and,  after  the  union  of 
the  provinces,  made  common  cause  with  the  French 
opposition  to  the  Tory  Government.  By  degrees,  how- 
ever, the  British-born  in  Upper  Canada  increased  in 
strength,  till  at  length  the  members  of  Assembly  returned 
by  them  exceeded  those  nominated  and  returned  by  the 
Family  Compact.  They  were  then  able,  by  the  aid  of 
the  opposition  members  of  French  blood,  to  drive  their 
enemies  from  office,  and  bring  in  that  Government  which 
now  holds  the  reins  of  power.  It  was  no  way  surprising, 
then,  that  a  majority  of  British-born  should  be  found 
fighting  side  by  side,  when  in  office,  against  the  same 
parties  whom  they  had  joined  to  oppose  before  the  reins 
of  Government  were  intrusted  to  their  hands ;  or  that 
our  ousted  opponents  should  be  bitter,  and  say  all  man- 
ner of  evil  against  us. 

"  And  then,  as  to  this  disputed  measure,  we  never 
believed  or  intended  that  any  one  who  had  aided  or  pro- 
moted the  rebellion  should  be  compensated  for  the  losses 
he  had  sustained  ;  though  some  of  our  supporters  spoke 
foolishly,  which  we  could  not  help,  and  our  leaders  were 
not  perfect  by  any  means  in  their  behaviour  on  some 
occasions.  How,  then,  could  we  abandon  our  old  friends? 
We  felt,  indeed,  that  we  had  no  cause  ;  and  if  we  had 
found  a  cause,  we  could  not,  amid  the  clamour  that  was 
raised,  have  honourably  taken  advantage  of  it." 

This  defence  places  the  question  in  a  light  I  was  too 
ignorant  of  the  circumstances  to  have  been  able  to  see 
it  in  before.  I  could  not  reply  to  it ;  and  as  I  was  only 
asking  for  information  myself,  I  place  it  before  my 
readers,  who  may  possibly  be  in  the  same  state  of  happy 
ignorance  with  myself,  without  committing  myself  either 
for  or  against  the  statement  of  my  Canadian  friend. 

VOL.  I.  X 


ll 


CHAPTER    XII. 


Laud  opposite  Quebec. — Its  quality  and  value. — Reserved  rents  consi- 
dered oppressive. — Few  immigrants  into  this  region. — Roman  Catho- 
lic seminary  at  Quebec. — Professor  Horan. — Self-sacrifice  of  the 
teachers. — Falls  of  Montmorenci. — The  natural  steps. — Ice  cone  of 
Montmorenci. — Sun-setting  on  Quebec. — Relative  proportions  of  the 
difierent  sects  in  Quebec. — Comparative  commercial  prosperity  of 
?  Montreal  and  Quebec. — Autumn  around  Quebec. — Fires  in  the  city. 
— Journey  down  the  St  Lawrence. — Price  of  land  and  labour  at  St 
Miohel. — Flat  lands  of  St  Thomas,  "  the  granary  of  the  lower  dis- 
trict."— St  Roque  dos  Annais. — Long  farming  streets. — Upper  Bay  of 
Kamouraska. — Mode  of  drying  grain. — Price  of  farms. — College  of  St 
Anne. — Rapid  increase  of  the  French  Canadian  population. — Early 
marriages  of  the  French  population. — Healthiness  of  the  climate. — 
Comparative  births  and  deaths  in  Lower  Canada  and  in  England. — 
Corn-mills. — Kamouraska. — Riviere-du-Loup. — Comfortable  hotel. — 
Village  of  Du  Loup,  and  its  future  prospects. — High-road  to  New 
Brunswick. — Active  Canadian  horses. — Cacona. — Country  apparently 
thickly  peopled. —  Great  extent  of  wild  forest-land  in  these  lower 
counties. — Lar^e  families  of  the  Canadian  peasantry. — Subdivision  of 
farms. — Poor  and  difficult  land  on  which  they  settle. — Resemblance 
of  the  poorer  habitants  to  the  poorer  Irish. — Desire  to  build  fine 
houses. — Extensive  mortgages. — Wages  of  labour  in  the  Rimouski 
district. — Longitudinal  valleys  parallel  with  the  St  Lawrence. — Pecu- 
liarity of  the  bog-earth  in  North  America. — Difficulty  in  finding 
quarters  at  Rimouski. — Irish  landlord. — Scottish  settlers  at  Mitis. 

Friday,  *  September  28. — After  breakfast  the  weather 
improved,  the  sun  shone  brightly  through  the  clouds,  and 
I  was  able  to  walk  out  into  the  strong  city  and  citadel  of 
Quebec,  where  every  gun  and  every  soldier  calls  up  the 
memory  of  the  immortal  Wolfe.     The  place  is  certainly 


SOIL  OPPOSITE  QUEBEC. 


323 


very  strong  by  nature ;  and  no  art  seems  to  have  been 
spared  to  turn  to  account  the  advantages  of  natural 
position.  The  only  weakness,  perhaps,  is  that  the  forti- 
fications are  too  extensive ;  and  in  the  event  of  a  war, 
would  require  a  larger  force  to  maintain  or  defend  them 
than  could  easily  be  spared  in  so  extensive  a  countr^-. 

Not  having  met  with  any  of  the  persons  to  \*  iiora  I 
had  brought  letters,  I  crossed  the  river  to  Point  Levi  in 
the  afternoon ;  and  climbing  the  lofty  bank,  from  which 
the  view  of  the  city  and  river  is  very  extensive  and  beau- 
tiful, I  made  a  short  excursion  on  foot  into  the  interior. 

The  rocks,  which  on  this  right  bank  rise  up  almost 
precipitously  from  the  river — like  the  high  ground  and 
cliffs  on  which  the  city  of  Quebec  stands — consist  of 
dark-coloured  slates  or  indurated  shales,  having  thin 
beds  of  limestone,  more  or  less  pure,  interstratified  with 
them.  They  belong  to  the  higher  beds  of  the  upper 
Silurian — the  Utica  and  Lorraine  shales  which  overlie 
the  Trenton  limestone  of  Kingston  and  Montreal — and 
are  inclined  at  a  very  high  angle.  From  the  elevated 
ground  beyond  the  top  of  the  bank,  the  country  inland 
appeared  to  be  cleared  to  a  great  extent,  and  undu- 
lated in  long  wave-like  ridges,  till  the  eye  finally  rested 
on  low  mountains,  which  I  supposed  to  be  a  prolonga- 
tion of  the  Green  Mountains  of  New  Hampshire  and 
Vermont. 

The  soil  was  free,  and  comparatively  light,  being 
foraied  for  the  most  part  from  the  crumbling  of  the 
shaly  rock,  of  which  many  fragments  were  intermingled 
with  it.  Indeed  in  some  fields,  where  the  rocks  protru- 
ded at  intervals  through  the  surface,  the  soil — like  that 
fertile  country  of  which  I  have  already  spoken,  near 
Woodstock  in  New  Brunswick,  or  the  still  richer  fields 
on  the  Onondaga  green  shales  near  Syracuse — con- 
sisted almost  entirely  of  visible  fragments  of  the  shivery 
indurated  shales. 


n 


324 


RESERVED   RENT  OF  LAND. 


Potatoes  were  almost  the  only  crop  I  saw  now  remain- 
ing in  the  fields.  On  his  knees,  working  with  a  diminu- 
tive hoe,  I  found  a  French  Canadian  digging,  from  what 
appeared  a  good  soil,  a  scanty  crop  of  small-sized  pota- 
toes. The  man  seemed  satisfied,  and  considered  the  crop 
good — perhaps  it  was,  in  comparison  with  those  of  the  past 
years  of  failure.  Their  size  reminded  me  of  the  graphic 
if  not  elegant  terms  in  which  a  New  Brunswick  farmer, 
on  his  return  from  Maine,  described  the  potato-crop  of 
that  State  to  a  friend  of  mine,  in  the  autumn  of  1849 : 
"  Why,  sir,  the  potatoes  in  Maine — I  could  put  fourteen 
of  them  into  your  mouth,  and  sixteen  into  that  of  any 
other  man.     I  could,  by  thunder ! — I  have  said  it ! " 

The  peasantry  obtain  land  from  the  farmers  and  pro- 
prietors for  their  potato-crop — as  is  still  the  case  in  many 
i"ural  districts  among  ourselves — free  from  rent,  on  con- 
dition of  manuring  and  cleaning  it.  The  owner  takes  a 
crop  of  grain  the  following  year,  and  again  lets  it  for 
potatoes  on  the  same  terms,  if  he  can.  Farther  inland, 
my  informant  said  the  land  was  let  to  tenants  at  so  high 
a  rate  that  they  were  much  kept  down  by  it.  On 
further  inquiry,  he  stated  the  rent  to  be  a  piastre  the 
arpent* — which  meant  a  dollar  for  an  arpent  in  front,  and 
perhaps  thirty  backwards — which  is  about  twopence  an 
acre.  What  can  be  the  condition  of  an  agricultural 
people,  who,  paying  scarcely  any  taxes,  feel  themselves 
weighed  down  by  a  rent  of  twopence  an  acre  ? 

I  was  here  in  the  county  of  Dorchester,  and  though  it 
was  situated  directly  opposite  to  Quebec,  there  had  not 
come  into  the  county  a  single  new  settler  during  the  year 
]  848.  The  value  of  cleared  land  varies  from  £1  to  £10 
currency.  There  are  two  reasons  for  the  custom,  pre- 
valent in  all  Lower  Canada,  of  running  the  farms  back 
from  the  roads,  with  a  narrow  frontage.      Society  is 

*  Six  arpents  make  about  five  imperial  acres. 


I'K 


ITS  VALUE  IN  DIFFERENT  COUNTIES. 


325 


obtained,  so  necessary  to  the  French,  and  many  neigh- 
bours close  at  hand,  by  living  in  one  long  street.  Many 
farms  can  also  be  laid  out,  with  little  expense  in  road- 
making.  Behind  the  first  row  of  farms  along  the  road,  a 
second  row  is  surveyed ;  and  beyond  these  a  second  road, 
and  a  third  row  of  farms.  These  are  spoken  of  as  the 
second  and  third  Concessions.  They  are  farther  from 
churches,  markets,  mills,  &c.,  than  the  first  Concession, 
and  are  therefore  less  esteemed.  In  this  county,  at 
present,  the  seigneurs  grant  the  uncleared  back-lands 
for  an  annual  charge  of  15s.  to  30s.  currency  for  the 
farm  of  90  arpents — 3  in  front,  and  30  deep — or  2d.  to 
4d.  an  acre.  This  is  considerably  greater  than  it  used 
to  be,  as  in  this  county  the  value  of  uncleared  land  has 
risen  much  during  the  last  ten  years. 

Immediately  above  this  county,  along  the  St  Lawrence, 
is  that  of  Lotbinibre.     Here  cleared  land  sells  for  508. 
and  uncleared  land  has  not  increased  in  value 


an  acre 


for  ten  years.  Immediately  below,  again,  is  the  county 
of  Bellechasse,  in  which  also  there  are  no  new  settlers. 
Cleared  farms,  well  situated,  will  sell  for  £400  to  £600 ; 
but  the  general  value  of  land  during  the  last  ten  years 
has  fallen  10  or  12  per  cent. 

Inland  again,  beyond  and  behind  Dorchester,  is  the 
county  of  Megantic,  which  is  described  as  very  flourish- 
m^.  There  are  no  immigrants;  but  the  population  is 
rapidly  augmenting  by  natural  increase.  It  is  a  purely 
French  Canadian  district.  The  average  value  of  cleared 
land  is  about  6s.  3d.  an  acre,  though  some  sells  as  high 
as  20s.  It  produces  sheep,  cattle,  and  butter  for  the 
Quebec  market.  It  will  be  recollected  that  the  price  of 
cleared  land  is  not  that  of  the  fee-simple,  the  rents  and 
rights  of  the  seigneur  being  always  reserved.  Probably, 
this  form  of  holding  is  one  of  the  causes  by  which  immi- 
grants are  deterred  from  penetrating  into  these  Lower 
Canadian  counties. 


0 


m 


ft ' 


m 

ijliJ 


m 


!'   -n 


iii' 


h 


i 


326 


ROMAN  CATHOLIC  SEMINARIES 


Sept.  29. — Among  other  places,  I  this  morning  visited 
the  Quebec  Seminary,  a  Roman  Catholic  institution, 
founded  nearly  two  hundred  years  ago,  which  accom- 
modates and  instructs  180  boarders,  and  120  day- 
scholars — a  number  about  equal  to  those  taught  in  the 
seminary  at  Montreal.  The  boarders  pay  £17,  lOs. 
currency  per  annum,  and  the  day-scholars  20s.  I  was 
much  interested  in  the  Professor  of  Natural  History  and 
Chemistry,  Mr  Horan,  who  had  visited  and  studied  at  the 
universities  of  Cambridge  in  Massachusetts,  and  Yale 
in  Connecticut,  with  the  view  of  obtaining  instruction 
which  was  beyond  his  reach  in  Canada.  I  found  him 
and  others  fully  alive  to  the  importance  of  an  improved 
agriculture  in  Lower  Canada,  and  anxious  to  aid  in 
introducing  instruction  in  its  principles  into  the  elemen- 
tary schools  of  the  lower  province. 

I  was  never  so  much  struck  as  upon  this  visit,  and  by 
my  conversations  with  Mr  Horan,  with  the  meritorious 
and  self-denying  spirit  of  the  teachers  in  some,  at  least,  of 
these  Roman  Catholic  seminaries.  This  institution  has 
a  small  endowment,  but  is  not  rich  like  that  of  Montreal, 
and  barely  makes  ends  meet.  The  professors,  without 
any  prospect  of  ever  rising  to  any  position  beyond  the 
walls  of  the  seminary,  devote  their  lives  to  the  duty 
of  teaching  without  remuneration.  They  are  lodged, 
fed,  and  clothed,  and  at  vacation-time,  if  they  choose  to 
visit  anywhere,  they  are  allowed  twenty  dollars  for 
expenses.  Thus  they  live  and  labour  from  year  to  year, 
with  scarcely  any  society  beyond  the  walls  of  the  insti- 
tution, shut  out  from  the  cordial  of  human  sympathy, 
and  centring  their  affections  on  a  brighter  future.  I  do 
not  praise  the  system,  regard  it  as  natural,  or  consider 
it  the  way  in  which  talent  may  be  best  employed  for  the 
benefit  of  our  fellow-creatures ;  but  for  the  self-denying 
spirit  of  the  devoted  clerical  teachers,  I  could  not  help 
feeling  a  sort  of  reverence.    There  were  men  of  fine 


AND  THEIR  CLERICAL  TEACHERS.  MT 

minds,  fresh  affections,  and  warm  feelings,  capable  of 
attaining  worldly  distinction  in  their  several  walks,  of 
enjoying  the  intercourse  of  social  life,  of  being  happy 
in  the  exercise  of  domestic  affections — laying  down  all 
worldly  hopes  and  prospects,  and  sacrificing  themselves 
to  the  duty  of  instruction.  While  I  pitied,  I  could 
not  but  respect  the  men — feel  there  was  something  in 
them  higher  and  nobler  than  had  moved  myself  in  my 
struggles  through  life;  and  while  I  almost  felt  indig- 
nant at  the  inhumanity  of  a  system  which  could  exact 
it,  my  heart  warmed  the  more  towards  my  friend  Iloran, 
wiio  had  been  able  voluntarily  to  sacrifice  himself  to  it. 

I  know  there  are  many  mkidless  and  heartless  beings, 
male  and  female,  to  whom  such  a  devotion  would  prove 
no  sacrifice.  I  do  not  allude  to  such  persons,  nor  to  the 
dry  and  unfeeling  mummies  into  which  the  lapse  of  long 
years  of  routine  may  convert  even  those  who  at  first  made 
a  true  and  priceful  sacrifice.  But  1  saw  before  me  men 
bright  with  intelligence,  and  with  a  capacity  for  appre- 
ciating enjoyment  still  unseared;  and  I  could  not  but 
honour  them  for  their  self-sacrifice,  because  I  knew  them 
to  be  still  human  enough  to  feel  that 't  was  great. 

In  the  afternoon,  I  drove  nine  miles  down  the  left 
bank  of  the  St  Lawrence,  to  visit  the  Falls  of  Mont- 
morenci.  Though  the  quantity  of  water  which  descends  is 
insignificant  after  Niagara,  and  smaller  even  than  at  the 
Grand  Falls  on  the  St  John  River,  yet  it  descends  from 
a  height  of  nearly  250  feet,  and  the  place  is  well  deserv- 
ing of  a  visit.  The  edges  of  the  highly-inclined  slate 
rocks  are  overlaid  by  nearly  horizontal  beds  of  impure 
thin  limestones,  which  are  cut  through  by  the  river,  and 
eaten  back  for  several  hundred  yards  from  the  St  Law- 
rence, till  a  hard  metamorphic  gneissoid  rock  has  arrested 
the  cutting  process.  Over  this  the  water  at  present  falls. 
Upon  the  horizontal  beds  is  a  deposit  of  10  to  30  feet  of 
drift ;  and  upon  this,  adjoining  the  St  Lawrence,  at  a  level 


'   ! 


328 


FALLS  OF   MONTMORENCr. 


somewhat  lower  than  tlic  top  of  the  Falls,  a  deposit  of  1 
to  6  feet  of  yellow  marine  sand,  mixed  with  recent  shells. 

A  mile  above  the  Falls,  on  the  same  river,  occur 
what  are  called  the  "  natural  steps,"  where  the  horizontal 
beds  of  comparatively  soft  rock  are  cut  by  the  water  into 
deep  ravines  or  gidlics  of  a  very  romantic  character,  and 
in  many  places  form  scries  of  natural  steps,  from  which 
the  place  derives  its  name. 

The  most  peculiar  circumstance  in  connection  with  the 
Falls  of  Montmorenci  is  the  appearance  presented  on  the 
channel  of  the  river  a  short  distance  below  the  cascade, 
when  winter  sets  in.  When  the  stream  below  becomes 
covered  with  ice,  the  falling  spray  descends  and  collects 
upon  its  surface  in  showers  of  snow,  which  cohere  and 
harden,  and  gradually  accumulate  into  a  lofty  cone  of 
ice — having  the  living  cataract  behind,  and  the  broad, 
still,  frozen  plain  of  the  St  Lawrence  in  front. 

This  conical  hill  forms  a  natural  "  Montague  Russe," 
much  frequented  by  the  young  people  of  Quebec,  being 
a  convenient  distance  for  sleighing  parties  even  in  the 
shortest  days  of  winter. 

In  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  Quebec,  land  sells 
high.  For  a  little  farm  of  70  acres,  on  which  his  house 
stands,  immediately  above  Wolflfe's  Cove,  Mr  John  Gil- 
mour  told  me  he  had  paid  at  the  rate  of  £75  currency 
an  acre.  Near  all  thriving  towns,  in  the  New  World  as 
in  the  Old,  land,  even  for  farming  purposes,  brings  a 
comparatively  high  price.  Near  this  city  the  land  is  very 
good  in  many  cases,  and  generally  produces  excellent 
green  crops.  In  both  Canadas,  as  now  in  Ireland,  such 
crops  are  becoming  more  cultivated  since  the  potato 
became  less  certain.  Mr  Sheppard,  the  well-known 
seedsman  in  Montreal,  informed  me  he  had  this  season 
sold  twice  as  much  turnip-seed  in  Lower  Canada,  and 
twenty  times  as  much  as  usual  in  Upper  Canada.  Of 
mangold-wurzel  seed,  four  times  as  much  as  usual  had 


SUNSET  AT  QUEBEC. 


329 


been  purchased  by  the  Lower  Canadians,  as  experlcneo 
had  shown  it  to  bo  better  adapted  to  the  climate.  This 
may  be  because  of  the  extreme  heat  of  the  summers  on 
the  river  St  Lawrence. 

Formed  from  softish,  somewhat  calcareous  slates,  which 
in  many  places  are  near  the  surface  and  crumble  readily, 
the  soil  is  inclined  to  bo  heavy,  and  rests  often  on  an 
impervious  bottom.  Drainage,  therefore,  generally,  and 
the  use  of  lime  in  many  places,  are  indicated  as  means 
of  improvement.  The  latter,  if  I  may  judge  by  the 
frequent  lime-kilns  I  passed  on  my  way  to  Montmorenci, 
is  tried  to  some  extent  by  the  farmers  around  Quebec. 

New  settlers  seldom  remain  in  this  county.  The 
average  value  of  uncleared  land  is  about  5s.,  and  of 
cleared  from  15s.  to  ITs.  6d.  an  acre.  During  the  last 
ten  years,  the  value  of  land  has  increased  one-fourth. 

On  my  way  back  from  Montmorenci,  about  six  in  tho 
evening,  the  quickly  setting  sun  shone  on  the  tinned  roofs 
and  spires  and  glittering  windows  of  Quebec,  pro- 
ducing an  ever-varying  but  very  beautiful  effect.  I  had 
in  my  life  before  seen  only  two  sunsets  more  striking, 
and  of  which  it  reminded  me — that  of  Paris  from  Monl- 
martre,  on  a  clear  autumnal  evening,  when  tlie  sinking 
rays  of  the  sun  lingered  still  on  the  Pantiiee,  on  Notre 
Dame,  and  other  prominent  objects,  singling  them  out 
as  individual  pictures  from  the  countless  mass  of  objects 
of  less  elevation ;  and  that  of  Moscow  from  the  Sparrow 
Hills,  when  its  thousand  domes  of  gold  and  silver,  with 
iutermlngled  green  and  azure,  and  its  ten  thousand  orna- 
mental crosses,  glittered  around  the  ancient  Kremlin,  ai  d 
the  massive  central  palace-fortress  itself  rose  ui  a  Iiuge 
dark  pile,  frowning  from  its  Eastern  to  *  ers  on  the  con- 
gregated churches  and  other  buildings  of  the  city  beneath. 

Sunday^  Sept.  30. — After  a  brief  visit  to  the  Boman 
Catholic  cathedral,  where  I  saw  the  venerable,  white- 
haired,  old  Archbishop  of  Quebec,  the  Primate  of  the 


IV- '^ 


'  1 ; 


I 


I    ill 


330 


SECTS  AND  PARTIES  AT  QUEBEC. 


North  American  provinces — since  dead,  I  believe — 
assisting  at  early  service,  in  the  midst  of  a  large  and 
apparently  devout  congregation,  I  went  to  the  Scotch 
Presbyterian  church,  where  I  heard  an  excellent  sermon. 
In  the  churches  already  in  use,  and  in  the  appearance  of 
the  new  ones  in  course  of  erection,  there  are  no  signs 
either  of  pecuniary  depression  or  of  a  want  of  general 
zeal  in  matters  of  religion. 

The  relative  numbers  of  the  several  religious  sects  in 
Quebec  is  considerably  different  from  what  it  is  in  Mont- 
real. In  1844,  the  last  published  census,  the  Iloman 
Catholics  formed  seven-ninths  of  the  whole  population, 
then  46,000,  now  probably  upwards  of  50,000.  Those 
of  the  Church  of  England  formed  only  one-ninth,  and  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland  one-eighteenth — all  the  other 
si^cts  made  up  the  remaining  eighteenth.  It  is,  perhaps, 
because  the  predominance  of  the  Roman  Catholic  French 
Canadian  population  is  so  great  that  party  differences, 
whether  political  or  religious,  are  represented  as  being 
much  less  bitter  here  than  at  Montreal. 

If  I  were  to  judge  from  my  own  experience  only,  I 
should  say  that  political  diflferences  of  opinion,  in  refe- 
rence to  recent  events,  were  at  least  as  bitter  as  they 
could  be  at  Montreal.  During  my  short  stay  in  Quebec, 
I  met  at  dinner  a  native  of  Great  Britain,  but  an  old 
resident  and  a  prosperous  merchant  in  that  city,  who,  after 
discussing  the  Rebellion  Losses  Bill  and  the  Governor's 
conduct  respecting  it,  hastily  wound  up  his  observations 
by  observing,  "  that  he  would  himself  have  helped  to  tar- 
and-feather  him."  I  laughed,  and  said  it  amazed  me 
much  to  hear  such  a  person  as  he  talk  so  violently. 
He  evidently  had  not  meant  what  he  said,  and  remarked, 
"  Well,  I  have  never  spoken  so  violently  before  ;  on  the 
contrary,  I  am  considered  too  moderate,  and  am  obliged 
to  keep  arms  in  my  house  to  defend  myself,  in  appre- 
hension of  an  attack  from  the  violent  people,  because  of 


TRADE  OP  MONTREAL  AND  QUEBEC. 


331 


my  moderation."  "  If  the  moderate  people  of  Quebec 
talk  as  you  do,"  I  said,  "  I  wonder  what  your  violent 
men  can  say."  >  | , 

It  is  feeling,  and  not  judgment,  that  has  led  to  the 
excitement  and  extreme  language  and  action  of  these 
British  Canadians.  I  could  not  help  remarking  to  myself, 
in  reference  to  the  Quebec  merchants,  that  if,  in  their 
ordinary  affairs,  these  successful  and  prudent  men  were 
to  show  a  tithe  of  the  want  of  consideration  displayed  in 
their  political  conversation,  neither  their  own  nor  other 
people's  business  would  so  prosper  in  their  hands. 

But  I  feel  that  I  should  be  wrong  to  judge  of  the 
opinions  of  the  people  of  Quebec  from  my  own  limited 
experience,  or  to  estimate  the  sentiments  even  of  a  single 
British  resident  from  a  hasty  after-dinner  expression. 
There  are  at  present  reasons  of  an  economical  kind  why 
the  mercantile  community  in  Montreal  should  be  in  a 
more  excitable  condition  than  that  of  Quebec,  and  which 
reasons  may  possibly  go  far  to  explain  the  angry  freaks 
of  the  population  of  the  former  city.  From  some  cause 
or  other,  which  it  is  not  necessary  here  to  investigate, 
the  trade  of  Montreal  had,  for  several  years  before  the 
late  Smeute,  been  seriously  declining,  while  that  of  Quebec 
had  been  largely  increasing.  This  will  be  seen  by  the 
following  comparison  of  the  imports  into  the  two  places 
in  pounds  sterling : — 


Montreal. 

Quebec. 

1841, 

.       £1,699,837 

£179,109 

1846, 

2,153,631 

585,633 

1847, 

1,695,978 

655,000 

1848, 

1,217,604 

514,393 

I  have  inserted  only  as  many  years  as  were  necessary 
to  show  that  the  imports  of  Quebec  have  greatly  increased 
during  the  last  ten  years,  while  those  of  Montreal,  not- 
withstanding the  rapid  growth  of  the  province,  have 
rather  diminished.    The  commerce  of  the  former  city  is 


I 


>'•     'i 


I 


332 


CHANGE  OF  THE  LEAF. 


in  a  more  flourishing  condition,  therefore,  than  that  of 
the  latter.  And  though,  in  the  dull  year  of  1848,  the 
imports  into  Quebec  fell  off  considerably,  it  was  only  for 
that  one  year,  while,  from  1845,  those  of  Montreal  had 
been  rapidly  lessening.  In  the  exports,  also,  from  the 
two  places,  there  was  a  much  greater  comparative  falling 
off  in  Montreal  than  in  Quebec  during  the  year  1848. 

Every  observer  of  the  political  atmosphere  knows  well 
that,  under  such  circumstances,  governments,  whether 
home  or  provincial,  are  always  thought  to  display  less 
ability,  and  their  measures  to  be  much  less  suited  to  the 
wants  of  the  times  and  to  the  regard  which  ought  ever 
to  be  had  to  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  subject,  than 
they  are  generally  esteemed  to  be  when  harvests  are 
good  and  commerce  flourishes. 

Autumn  had  now  fairly  set  in  in  the  province  of 
Quebec.  About  Kingston  and  Montreal,  and  upon  the 
banks  of  the  St  Lawrer  ce,  as  I  descended  the  river,  the 
leaves  were  still  green  upon  the  trees,  the  weather  gene- 
rally mild,  and  the  mid-day  sun  hot  and  powerful.  But 
the  beautiful  amphitheatre  of  mountains  towards  the 
north  and  east,  which  gives  one  of  its  peculiar  features 
to  the  striking  scenery  around  Quebec,  had  this  morning 
clothed  itself  in  the  bright  autumnal  tints — of  which  I 
have  already  spoken  as  characterising  the  woods  of  North 
America  in  the  fall  of  the  year.  Like  our  Highland  hills 
in  summer,  when  the  heather  is  in  bloom,  the  mountain 
ridges  appeared  more  cheerful  and  lively  for  the  change, 
and  their  outlines  and  varying  features  were  more  dis- 
tinctly brought  out  to  the  eye  than  when  the  universal 
green  covered  with  a  common  hue  both  mountain  and 
plain,  and  blended  together  narrow  ravine,  wide  retreat- 
ing hollow,  rocky  escarpment,  and  rounded  outlying  hill, 
in  the  hard  and  less  distinguishable  outline  of  a  lofty, 
dark-coloured,  and  frowning  rampart.  The  sharp  air,  too, 
indicated  that  the  season  for  summer  clothing  was  nearly 


FIRES  IN  QUEBEC. 


333 


over,  and  that  blanket-coats  and  homespun  cloth,  and  e^  en 
bufFalo-robes  and  dresses,  must  be  speedily  provided. 

All  Europe  is  aware  of  the  superior  ease  and  expeui- 
tion  with  which  the  people  of  Quebec  contrive  to  enlighten 
and  enliven  their  wooden  city  with  frequent  fires.  Three 
successive  times  the  fire-bell  had  already  rung  since  my 
arrival ;  but  the  affairs  had  been  small,  all  of  them  during 
the  day,  and  had  attracted  little  general  attention.  But 
things  were  differently  managed  to-night.  As  I  was 
falling  into  my  first  dose,  the  bells  began  to  sing  out, 
a  running  of  many  feet  followed,  and  then  the  clattering 
of  engines,  and  by-and-by  a  light  began  to  fill  my  bed- 
room ;  and  as  I  lay  in  bed,  the  playing  of  a  huge  flame 
became  gradually  visible,  rising  and  falling  above  the 
houses  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  square  in  which  the 
hotel  was  situated.  All  night  long,  the  fire  and  the  light, 
and  the  varying  flame,  and  the  noise  of  the  bells,  and  the 
mingling  tones  of  many  sounds  and  voices,  continued, 
and  when  daylight  returned,  four  houses  were  already 
consumed.  But  the  flames  were  subdued  and  danger 
over ;  and  as  I  emerged  into  the  street  to  prepare  for  my 
departure  from  the  city,  the  weary  firemen  and  their 
soiled  engines  were  again  on  their  way  homewards. 

Monday^  Oct.  1. — After  an  early  breakfast,  I  crossed 
the  river  to  Point  Levi,  and  soon  after  nine  A.M.  was 
on  my  way  down  the  right  bank  of  the  St  Lawrence 
in  a  light  caleche,  guided  by  a  French  Canadian,  and. 
drawn  by  a  single  horse.  I  proposed  to  descend  the 
river  as  far  as  the  Mitis,  and  thence  to  cross  the 
province  of  Gasp^,  by  what  is  called  the  Kempt  Road,  to 
the  Restigouche  River  in  New  Bioinswick.  All  this  I 
proposed  to  accomplish  in  the  course  of  the  week,  and  to 
arrive  at  the  town  of  Campbelton  on  the  Restigouche  on 
the  evening  of  Saturday. 

Among  the  more  striking  objects  of  this  day's  journey 
was  the  Fall  of  Montmorenci,  which  I  had  visited  on 


!• 


i 


i' 

i 

1 

334 


VALUE  OF  LAND  AND  LABOUR. 


<1  i 


Saturday.  During  the  latter  half  of  the  first  stage,  as  I 
descended  towards  the  Isle  d'Orleans,  the  mouth  of  this 
river  gradually  opened  on  the  other  side  of  the  St 
Lawrence,  and  the  morning  sun,  shining  on  the  broad 
white  sheet  of  its  falling  waters,  made  it,  in  some  respects, 
a  more  striking  and  impressive  feature  in  the  land- 
scape, than  when  seen,  with  its  accompanying  roar  and 
mist,  from  the  immediately  adjoining  rocks  over  '  liich  it 
is  precipitated. 

By  half-past  two,  I  had  reached  St  Thomas  —  a 
distance  of  thirty  miles.  The  land,  in  general,  was 
good  ;  for  the  most  part  light,  and  easily  worked,  but 
sometimes  of  a  stiff  clay.  As  I  passed  through  the 
parish  of  St  Michel,  eight  or  ten  miles  below  Point  Levi, 
I  was  informed  that  the  crops  it  yielded  were  somewhat 
less  than  two  hundred  bushels  of  potatoes,  or  a  ton  of 
hay,  an  acre,  and  that  it  sold  from  four  to  four  and  a  half 
dollars.  It  is  let  sometimes  on  halves,  or  for  a  money 
rent  of  eight  shillings  an  arpent.  Labour  costs  one 
shilling  and  eightpence  to  two  shillings  currency  a-day 
in  summer ;  but  in  the  short  days  of  winter  not  more 
than  one  shilling  a-day.  Men  are  hired  by  the  year  at 
eight  to  ten  pounds  currency,  with  board  and  lodging. 
Labour,  therefore,  is  cheaper  here  than  in  either  Upper 
Canada  or  New  Brunswick — perhaps  the  services  of 
French  Canadians  are  in  reality  not  so  valuable. 

In  the  back  or  more  inland  country,  where  the  land 
belongs  to  the  province,  new  Concessions  are  being 
established  by  the  Government,  in  which  sixty-acre  farms 
— two  acres  in  front  and  thirty  backwards — are  offered 
in  fee-simple  for  thirty  dollars,  or  at  the  rate  of  two 
shillings  sterling  an  acre.  There  are  no  new  settlers 
in  these  counties ;  but  the  native  proprietors,  as  my 
informant  stated,  readily  save  money  enough  to  establish 
their  sons  on  such  new  farms.  Where  a  man  has 
several  sons,  he  is  allowed  to  select  adjoining  grants  for 


GRANARY  OP  THE  LOWER  DISTRICT. 


m 


each  of  them.  Old  cleared  well-situated  farms  sell  at 
four  hundred  to  six  hundred  pounds  currency  in  this 
county  of  Bellechasse,  though  of  late  years  they  have, 
both  in  this  and  in  the  adjoining  county  of  Tlslet, 
considerably  lessened  in  value. 

At  St  Thomas  — where  the  South  Kiver  empties  itself 
into  the  larger  river  St  Francis,  before  their  united 
waters  descend  to  the  St  Lawrence — a  large  breadth  of 
flat  and  apparently  rich  country  intervenes  between  the 
mountains  and  the  great  river.  At  St  Thomas,  there 
are  falls  on  the  St  Francis,  upon  which  a  Scotch  settler 
has  erected  mills,  which  grind  up  the  produce  of  this  rich 
flat,  formerly  called  the  "  granary  of  the  lower  district." 
Its  produce  is  less  now  than  it  used  to  be  ;  but  the  land 
is  still  very  capable  of  yielding  remunerative  crops. 

Skirting  the  St  Lawrence  still,  1  drove  on  through 
the  county  of  Tlslet  to  St  Jean  du  Port  Joli,  through 
which  I  passed  as  the  evening  was  coming  on.  It  is  a 
cheerful  clean  little  village,  with  many  nice-looking  two- 
story  houses,  of  considerable  size  and  some  architectural 
pretensions;  and  several  new  houses  were  building,  which 
must  be  regarded  as  tokens  of  prosperity.  At  nine 
P.M.  I  stopped  for  the  night  at  St  Roque  des  Annais, 
having  come  altogether  only  sixty-three  miles.  The 
last  twenty  miles  I  had  travelled  in  the  rain,  and,  for  the 
most  part,  in  the  dark ;  it  was,  therefore,  a  greater 
disappointment  to  find  I  had  got  into  bad  quarters  for 
the  night.  I  would  recommend  those  who  nry  travel 
this  road  after  me  to  endeavour  so  to  arrange  their 
route  as  to  fix  their  night-quarters  at  some  other  spot 
than  at  St  Roque  des  Annais. 

As  long  as  daylight  continued,  I  was  still  travelling 
in  the  county  of  I'Islet;  and  although,  as  I  have  already 
said,  the  value  of  land,  both  in  this  county  and  in  that  of 
Bellechasse,  has  diminished  of  late  years  in  consequence 
of  the  failure  of  the  crops,  yet  I  passed,  during  the  day, 


-'S 


m 


336 


CHURCHES  AND  PR£SBYT£KES. 


I 


!'^ 


In  these  counties,  not  only  much  fine  land,  and  a  thickly 
settled  country,  but  what  appeared  to  me,  as  a  mere 
passer-by,  to  be  many  indications  of  prosperity  and  com- 
parative comfort.  About  every  two  leagues,  often  nearer, 
rose  a  large  church,  and  beside  it  a  comfortable 
parsonage  or  preahyi^re^  and  houses  enough  to  form  a 
considerable  village  or  church-town.  Many  small  rivers 
flow  into  the  St  Lawrence  in  the  county  of  Tlslet, 
which  are  navigable  for  short  distances ;  and  the  new 
houses  building  in  many  places  indicated  that,  notwith- 
standing the  failure  of  crops,  and  the  alleged  scarcity  of 
employment,  all  gleams  of  prosperity  had  not  yet  left 
this  part  of  the  lower  province. 

The  stranger  will  here  also  see  illustrated,  what  I  had 
already  become  familiar  with  in  Nova  Scotia  and  New 
i^runswick,  the  peculiar  love  of  society  and  neighbour- 
hood by  which  the  French  population  are  distinguished. 
Continuous  rows  of  houses,  separated  by  one  or  two 
intervening  fields,  accompany  him  for  miles  along  his 
road.  In  fact,  wherever  the  country  is  fully  settled, 
this  is  the  case,  unless  the  traveller  happens  to  turn  up  a 
cross-road,  when  a  couple  of  miles  may  occasionally  be 
passed  without  meeting  with  a  farmer's  house.  This 
close  neighbourhood  is  obtained  by  the  method  already 
described,  of  dividing  the  land  into  long  stripes,  or 
narrow  adjoin  ng  farms.  It  is  much  to  be  wished  that 
those  who  really  have  the  agricultural  improvement  of 
the  French  Canadian  holdings  at  heart,  should 
endeavour  to  have  this  system  discontinued.  The 
amount  of  labour,  both  for  men  and  horses,  is  greatly 
increased  by  placing  the  centre  of  operations  and  the 
home  of  the  labourers  and  stock  at  the  extremity  of  these 
stripes  of  land ;  and  the  diflSculty  is  greater  in  proper'" 
superintending  and  executing  all  the  necessary  operation 
of  the  farm.  Separated  more  widely  from  each  other, 
they  might  possibly  gossip  less  and  labour  more. 


UPPER  BAY   OF  KAMOURASKA. 


337 


Tuesday^  Oct.  2. — Much  rain  had  fallen  during 
the  night  and  the  early  morning,  but  it  had  cleared  off 
before  I  started  at  half-past  eight  a.m.  The  fall  of 
rain,  however,  was  unfortunate  for  me,  as  it  made  the 
roads  heavy  as  well  as  dirty,  and  delayed  my  advance 
very  much. 

Soon  after  leaving  St  Roque,  I  entered  the  county  of 
Kamouraska.  To  this  county,  which  is  not  densely 
peopled,  a  few  new  settlers  have  recently  come,  though 
I  am  not  aware  if  any  of  them  are  from  the  British 
Isles.  Uncleared  land  sells  generally  at  half-a-crown  an 
acre ;  cleared  land  as  high  as  two  pounds  an  acre,  and, 
in  some  places,  considerably  higher. 

Two  bays  distinguish  the  river  coast  of  this  county, 
called  respectively  the  Upper  and  Lower  Bays  of 
Kamouraska.  At  St  Anne  la  Pocatifere  the  upper  bay 
commences.  It  is  encircled  by  a  ridge  of  romantic 
rocky  hills,  against  which,  at  some  ancient  period,  the 
waters  of  the  St  Lawrence  washed,  but  which  is  now 
some  miles  from  the  water's  edge.  The  intervening 
space  consists  of  a  broad  flat  of  rich  land,  in  some 
places  still  marshy  and  wet,  but  where  it  is  sufficiently 
elevated,  bearing  magnificent  crops  of  hay  and  of  oats, 
wheat  and  potatoes.  The  road  runs  through  this  flat 
for  six  or  eight  miles,  and  at  the  lower  end  of  the  bay 
crosses  the  river  Quelle  by  a  bridge  of  considerable 
length.  Through  banks  of  rich  alluvial  matter  this 
river  here  falls  into  the  St  Lawrence,  and  forms  a  small 
harbour,  which  is  the  shipping-place  for  the  rich  land 
of  the  valley. 

Though  marshy,  I  was  informed  that  this  flat  is 
exceedingly  healthy — as  most  places  in  Lower  Canada 
and  New  Brunswick  are  said  to  be — even  where  in  Great 
Britain  fever  and  ague  would  inevitably  prevail.  But 
nevertheless,  for  agricultural  reasons,  it  is  a  fit  locality 

VOL.  I.  Y 


m 


^t 


II 


''"i 


lIlM 

m 


338 


SPREADING  OF  CORN  TO  DRY. 


for  the  introduction  of  a  general  tliorough-drainage. 
The  narrow  nine-foot  ridges  so  common  in  Canada,  the 
open  furrows  between  them,  and  the  large  main-drains 
or  ditclies  around  the  fields,  are  all  insufficient  to  remove 
the  water  which  falls  and  accumulates  in  the  land.  To 
keep  the  two  sets  of  open  ditches  in  order  must  here,  as 
elsewhere,  annually  cost  much  more  than  the  interest  of 
the  sums  which  the  construction  of  covered  drains  would 
require. 

Yesterday  {1st  Oct.)  I  had  seen  much  hay  in  the 
act  of  being  led,  and  to-day  I  passed  many  fields  of  oats 
"till  uncut,  and  a  few  of  wheat,  barley,  and  pease. 
Many  of  the  fields  of  oats  which  were  cut,  but  not  car- 
ried— and  such  was  the  case  upon  this  flat — were  spread 
out  in  the  fields,  as  in  the  grassing  of  flax,  at  the 
mercy  of  the  wet  weather,  which  appeared  now  to  have 
set  in.  I  did  not  see  a  single  sheaf  or  stook  during  the 
whole  day.  This  method  of  spreading  out,  instead  of 
binding  up  the  corn  when  cut,  is  nearly  exploded,  I  am 
told,  even  in  the  higher  parts  of  Canada  East ;  but  in 
these  lower  counties  it  appears  to  be  still  universal. 

Five  hundred  pounds  was  stated  to  me  to  be  the  value 
of  a  farm  on  this  land,  two  arpents  wide  by  forty  deep. 
This  is  £400  sterling  for  sixty-six  acres,  including  house 
and  farm-buildings — or  at  the  rate  of  £6  sterling  an 
acre.  Along  the  coast  from  this  point,  indeed,  this  sum 
was  frequently  named  to  me  as  the  value  of  improved 
farms,  with  good  houses  upon  them ;  and  it  appears  to  be 
a  kind  of  average  price  among  the  French  Canadians  of 
the  Lower  St  Lawrence. 

Towards  the  northern  extremity  of  the  ridge  of  hills 
which  girdles  this  bay,  and  looking  down  upon  the  belt 
of  rich  land  of  which  I  have  spoken,  stands  the  college 
or  seminary  of  St  Anne.  The  building  is  large,  hand- 
some, and  beautifully  situated.  It  accommodates,  and  is 
occupied  by,  about  a  hundred  and  eighty  students.    The 


SEMINARY  OF  ST  ANNE. 


339 


rate  of  board  is  £17,  10s.,  as  at  Quebec,  and  the  whole 
expenses  about  £20  a-year.  I  was  surprised  to  find  in 
80  remote  a  spot  a  college  containing  so  many  pupils, 
and  interested  in  the  fact  that  so  many  of  the  habitants 
should  be  in  a  condition  to  [)ay  even  so  comparatively 
moderate  a  sum  for  the  education  of  their  children. 
This  institution  enjoys  a  considerable  reputation,  and 
has  pupils  from  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick. 
There  are  twenty  such  seminaries,  it  is  said,  in  Lower 
Canada;  and  it  was  formerly  objected,  as  a  matter  of 
reproach  to  the  habitants,  that  too  many  of  their  young 
men  received  at  these  numerous  seminaries  a  classical 
education,  unfitting  them  for  ordinary  rural  labour, 
while  too  few  received  that  elementary  education  which 
our  common  schools  are  intended  to  impart.  This 
reproach  is  still  in  some  degree  applicable ;  but  the 
influence  of  the  United  States  and  of  Upper  Canada 
must  by  degrees  bring  the  school-system  of  the  Lower 
St  Lawrence  more  into  conformity  with  the  general 
tendencies  of  the  age  in  which  we  live. 

Near  Kamouraska  church  and  faubourg,  the  lower 
bay  of  this  name  also  contains  good  flat  laud,  and,  with 
occasional  interruptions,  similar  land  stretches  along  the 
shore  as  we  descend.  Inland  valleys  also,  parallel  to  the 
St  Lawrence,  exist  behind  the  rocky  ridges  which  suc- 
cessively occur  as  we  advance  into  the  interior,  in  which 
good  land,  more  or  less  granted  and  settled,  prevails. 
Should  foreign  settlers  continue  to  shun  this  region, 
there  is  ample  room  for  the  natural  expansion  of  the 
native  population  for  many  years  to  come. 

And  yet  the  French  habitants  in  this  cold  region  of 
Xorth  America  increase  very  rapidly.  For  this  increase 
there  are  several  reasons.  One  is,  the  early  marriages 
to  which  both  sexes  are  addicted  among  the  people  of 
French  descent.  At  Kamouraska  I  had  stopped  a  few 
moments  to  obtain  a  fresh  horse  and  carriage,  and,  on 


i:  r 


ill 


111 


I 


340 


EARLY   MARRIAGES  IN   LOWER  CANADA, 


starting,  expressed  to  my  new  cocker  my  admiration  of 
his  pretty  young  wife,  and  inquired  her  age.  "  One- 
and-twenty."  "  And  how  long  have  you  been  married?" 
"  Six  years ;  and  she  was  a  widow  when  I  married  her ! " 
Fourteen  and  fifteen  is  a  common  ago  for  the  marriage 
of  females,  and  eighteen  for  males,  on  the  shores  of  the 
St  Lawrence.  These  early  marriages  are  the  more  likely 
to  accelerate  the  increase  of  the  French  Canadian  popu- 
lation, as  the  females  retain  their  vigour,  and  continue 
prolific,  to  a  comparatively  advanced  period  of  life. 

Another  cause  is  the  healthiness  of  the  climate.  I 
have  already  adverted  to  the  general  opinion  upon  this 
subject,  in  regard  even  to  localities  such  as  in  Great 
Britain  are  usually  unhealthy.  But  the  statistical 
returns  for  Lower  Canada,  in  relation  to  births  and 
(deaths,  bears  out  this  general  opinion.  Thus,  the  pro- 
portion of  births  and  deaths  in  the  upper  and  lower 
districts  of  the  St  Lawrence — those  of  Montreal  and 
Quebec — compared  with  Great  Britain,  are,  according 
to  the  best  existing  data,  nearly  as  follows : — 

Birtlis. 

1  in  20 
...  20 
...  21 
...  33 


1844, 


District  of  Montreal, 
District  of  Quebec, 
Whole  of  Lower  Canada,    . . . 
Whole  of  England,  1848, 


Deatlii. 

1  in  51 
...  41 
...  63 
...  45 


Thus,  while  the  births  in  Canada  add  yearly  5  per 
cent  to  the  population,  those  of  England  add  only  3  per 
cent;  and  while  the  deaths  lessen  the  population  in 
England  by  2?  per  cent,  those  of  Lower  Canada  lessen 
it  only  by  It's.  If  we  deduct  these  opposing  numbers 
from  each  other,  as  in  the  following  table,  we  find  the 
yearly  increase  in  the  two  countries  to  be — 


Increase  by  births, 
Decrease  by  deaths, 

Yearly  increase, 


Lower  Canada. 
5  in  100 
l/o  in  100' 


St'o-  in  100 


England. 

3      in  100 
2?    in  100 


i    in  100 


AND   ITS  COMPARATIVE   HEALTHINESS. 


341 


By  natural  increase,  therefore,  tliere  arc  added  to  the 
French-Canadian  population  of  Lower  Canada  four 
persons  for  every  one  that  is  added  to  the  population  of 
England.  Not  only  are  the  people  naturally  prolific, 
therefore,  but  the  country  is  pre-eminently  healthy. 

Another  consideration  will  place  this  latter  remark  in 
a  still  stronger  light.  In  England  there  died  of  the 
whole  people  yearly,  in 

1700,  one  out  of  every  25 

1801 35 

1811,        38 

1848,        45 

— that  Is,  while  England  was  undrained,  and  sanatory 
measures  unattended  to,  and  medical  skill  less  exten- 
sively or  generally  available,  the  proportion  of  deaths 
was  nearly  double  what  it  is  now.  Were  it  still  as 
great  as  it  was  in  1700,  and  the  births  not  more 
numerous,  four  out  of  every  hundred  would  die  yearly, 
while  only  three  to  every  hundred  are  born.  The 
population,  that  is,  would  decrease  more  rapidly  than  it 
is  at  present  increasing.  But  Lower  Canada,  in  its 
natural  condition  —  undrained,  innocent  of  sanatory 
associations  or  commissioners  of  sewers,  and  sparsely 
provided  with  medical  men — is  more  healthy  than  Eng- 
land, with  all  the  appliances  which  wealth,  science,  and 
civilisation  have  yet  brought  to  bear  upon  her  sanatory 
condition. 

This  is  a  very  satisfactory  result,  not  only  as  it 
explains  why  the  French  population  of  Lower  Canada 
rapidly  increases,  but  because  of  its  bearing  on  the  future 
prospects  of  the  province,  and  the  chances  of  health  and 
longevity  to  those  who  may  select  it  as  their  future 
home. 

Among  other  agricultural  observations  I  had  made 
to-day  and  yesterday,  I  may  mention  the  numerous 


JMil! 


'r>'':''\  i 


I'     I 

I, 


342 


TOWN  OF  KAM0URA8KA. 


ij  *1 


small  wind-machines,  for  grinding  tlioir  com,  which  I 
had  seen  attached  to  the  bams  of  the  habitants.  Farms 
of  80  and  160  arpcnta  possessed  them  ;  but  I  had  not 
the  satisfaction  of  seeing  any  of  them  in  operation. 
Many  of  them  looked  old,  and  of  somewhat  primitive 
construction,  so  that  the  introduction  of  these  mills  must 
bo  of  comparatively  ancient  date.  The  large  mill  of 
a  seigneur  comes  to  appear  as  a  real  advantage  to  a 
neighbourhood — even  though  the  moullre  bo  heavy — 
when  we  sec  how  many  other  machines  it  supersedes, 
and  how  much  labour  and  anxiety  it  saves. 

Kamouraska,  at  the  mouth  of  a  river  of  the  same 
name,  and  a  county  town,  is  rendered  lively  in  summer 
by  sea-bathing  visitors.  It  is  considered  one  of  the 
healthiest  places  in  Lower  Canada.  Opposite  to  it  are 
a  few  rocky  islands,  of  little  value,  between  which  and 
the  mainland  the  bed  of  the  river  is  nearly  dry  at  low 
water.  From  the  shore  to  the  mountains  a  flat  of 
recent  deposits  extends,  studded  at  intervals  with  knolls 
of  granite  and  gneissoid  rocks,  almost  destitute  of  soil, 
and  covered,  like  the  rocks  of  Scandinavia,  with  dwarf 
and  stunted  pines.  If  any  doubt  remained  as  to  this 
flat  having  been  anciently  submerged  beneath  the  level 
of  the  St  Lawrence,  it  would  be  removed  by  the  appear- 
ance of  the  islands,  and  the  almost  dry  inter-channels 
which  He  opposite  to  the  modern  town.  Lift  up  the 
present  bed  of  the  river  some  fifty  feet  more,  and  a  new 
stripe  of  similar  land,  studded  with  similar  rocky 
eminences,  would  be  added  to  the  existing  land. 

I  had  travelled  through  rain  above  and  mud  below 
for  several  hours,  when,  about  5  P.M.,  I  reached  the 
river  Du  Loup,  twelve  miles  beyond  Kamouraska, 
having  accomplished  only  eighteen  leagues  during  the 
day.  I  found  the  inn  very  comfortable,  however ;  and 
as  I  was  informed  that  I  must  proceed  nine  leagues 
farther  before  tolerable  quarters  were  to  be  obtained,  I 


THE  TOWN  OP  DU  LOUP. 


343 


made  up  my  mind  to  stay  hero,  and  recruit  for  a  long 
day  on  the  morrow.  I  had  soon  a  nice  fire  in  a  clean 
room,  and  a  well-arranged  dinner-table  before  me  ;  and 
I  felt  very  grateful  to  the  good  people  of  Quebec  for  the 
summer  patronage  they  bestow  upon  the  place  during 
the  season  for  bathing,  since  to  a  careful  provision  for 
their  wants  I  was  chiefly  indebted  for  the  well-served 
table  and  delightful  night's  quarters  which  I  enjoyed  at 
this  hotel. 

Oct.  3.  —  Du  Loup,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  of 
that  name,  is  a  village  of  about  a  thousand  inhabitants : 
it  contains  many  good  houses,  a  good  hotel,  and  a 
larger  proportion  of  British  settlers  than  any  other 
town  in  Lower  Canada,  with  the  exception  of  Quebec. 
It  owes  its  actual  prosperity,  and  the  promise  of  future 
increase  and  importance,  chiefly  to  its  position.  At  the 
mouth  of  a  small  river,  it  has  a  harbour  into  which 
vessels  can  enter,  and  by  means  of  which  foreign  traflic 
can  be  maintained.  It  is  also  at  the  end  of  the  Grand 
Portage,  as  it  is  called — the  highroad  between  Lower 
Canada  and  New  Brunswick.  The  road  to  Canada,  of 
which  I  have  already  spoken — as  commencing  at  Little 
Falls,  or  Edmonston,  on  the  upper  St  John  River,  in 
Madawaska,  New  Brunswick — leads  along  the  Lake 
Temiscouata  in  a  northerly  direction,  and  reaches  the 
St  Lawrence  at  Du  Loup,  a  distance  from  Little  Falls 
of  seventy-six  miles.  As  the  port  not  only  of  a  large 
district  of  Lower  Canada,  but  also  of  the  upper  waters 
of  the  St  John  River,  and  the  more  northerly  portions 
of  Western  New  Brunswick,  this  little  place,  as  the 
population  increases,  and  facilities  of  communication 
extend,  must  constantly  increase  in  importance.  At 
present  also  it  is.  In  the  summer  season,  the  resort  of 
sea-bathing  parties  from  Quebec,  whom  the  change  of 
air,  the  romantic  scenery,  the  beautiful  views  of  the 
river  St  Lawrence,  here  upwards  of  twenty  miles  wide, 


Ovnfc 


CANADIAN   HORSES. 


studded  with  islands,  and  skirted  on  its  opposite  shore 
by  lofty  mountains,  and  the  facilities  of  a  steamboat 
which,  in  the  hot  months,  plies  from  Quebec,  allure  to 
this,  in  British  ideas,  comparatively  distant  spot. 

About  half-past  seven  A.  M.  I  left  Du  Loup,  keeping 
still  along  the  south  shore  of  the  St  Lawrence.  The 
morning  was  gloomy,  and  the  air  oppressed  with  fog, 
but  fortunately  the  rain  kept  oflf  for  the  greater  part  of 
the  day.  I  found  the  habitants,  with  whom  I  engaged 
for  horses  and  waggons  from  this  point,  each  anxious  to 
carry  me  farther  than  his  horses  were  able  to  go. 
Though  badly  fed,  indeed,  it  is  astonishing  how  much 
work  these  itive  little  horses  can  do.  They  rarely 
receive  oatD  inless  they  are  to  be  put  to  unusually  hard 
work ;  and,  by  way  of  preparation  for  the  long  journey 
of  this  morning,  my  first  driver  had  overfed  his  horse, 
and  actually  unfitted  him  for  a  fair  day's  work.  Not- 
withstanding bad  and  heavy  roads,  however,  he  persisted 
in  whipping  on  till  we  had  accomplished  twelve  leagues, 
when,  after  frequent  remonstrances  on  my  part,  he  was 
himself  compelled  to  confess  that  his  horse  could  do 
no  more,  and  I  unwillingly  to  send  him  back.  The 
next  horse  carried  me  ten  leagues,  and,  about  eight 
p.  M.,  brought  me  to  the  town  of  Rimouski,  where  I 
with  difficulty  found  quarters  for  the  night. 

The  road  from  Du  Loup  lay  through  a  thickly-peopled 
country  as  far  as  St  Simon,  and  a  few  miles  beyond ;  it 
then  entered  upon  a  new  clearing,  called  the  Portage, 
along  which,  nearly  the  whole  way  to  Rimouski, 
scarcely  a  single  house  existed  twenty  years  ago. 

Cacona,  a  roc-cy  peninsula,  about  ten  miles  below  Du 
Loup,  which  we  passed  on  our  left,  rivals  the  latter  as 
a  Goa-bathing  station  for  the  people  of  Quebec.  It  has 
the  same  views  oi  the  St  Lawrence,  and  a  salter  water, 
but  is  not  so  romantically  situated  as  Du  Loup.  Oppo- 
site to  it  is  Green  Island,  on  which  stands  one  of  the  few 


APPARENTLY  DENSE  POPULATION. 


»46 


lighthouses  with  which  the  St  Lawrence  has  hitherto 
been  provided.  It  is  lighted  up  from  the  middle  of 
April  till  the  middle  of  December.  /  i  I 

I  have  said  that,  for  a  considerable  part  of  my  day's 
journey,  until  I  reached  what  is  called  the  Portage,  I 
passed  through  a  thickly-peopled  country ;  and  so  it 
really  seems  to  the  traveller  who  drives  merely  along 
the  high-road,  and  judges,  as  one  is  inclined  to  do,  only 
from  what  he  sees.  To  pass  house  succeeding  house,  at 
distances  of  one  or  two  fields  only,  for  a  whole  morning, 
creates  the  impression  of  a  dense  population  of  small 
farmers;  and  although  the  woods  appear  to  close  in 
behind  each  small  farm  at  no  great  distance,  yet  know- 
ing that  each  farmer  keeps  many  acres  in  wood  for 
his  winter's  fuel,  we  naturally  conclude  that  beyond 
these  reserved  woods  other  farms  are  cleared  and  culti- 
vated in  numberless  Concessions  behind.  But  this  is  the 
case  as  yet  only  to  a  small  extent ;  and  the  vast  area  of 
the  still  untouched  Lower  Canadian  wilderness,  as  well 
as  the  comparatively  small  fraction  of  the  surface  which 
has  yet  been  subdued  by  the  hand  of  man,  may  be 
judged  of  from  the  following  table.  The  four  counties 
of  Bellechasse,  I'Islet,  Kamouraska,  and  Rimouski  are 
those  through  which  I  passed,  on  my  way  from  Quebec 
to  Mitis,  along  the  south  shore  of  the  St  Lawrence. 
The  area  of  these  four  counties  is  represented  in  square 
miles  and  in  acres  in  the  first  and  second  columns ;  and 
the  extent  of  each  actually  surveyed  as  yet,  and  laid  out 
in  square  miles,  is  indicated  by  the  numbers  set  down  in 
the  third  column. 


Area  in 

Laid  out  in 

Square  Miles 

Acres. 

Square  Miles. 

Bellechasse, 

1083 

693,020 

726 

L'Islct, 

1220 

730,800 

560 

Kamouraska, 

1090 

6,976,000 

568 

Rimouski, 

8200 

6,248,000 

2240 

In  the  first  of  these  counties,  that  opposite  the  Falls 


346 


EXTENT  OP  WILD   LAND. 


:i'  r 


of  Montmorenci,  about  three-fourths  of  the  whole  sur- 
face has  been  surveyed,  and  probably,  for  the  most  part, 
granted.  In  I'Islet  and  Kamouraska,  about  one-half 
has  been  surveyed ;  but  of  that  of  Kimouski,  only  one- 
fourth.  Of  that  which  has  been  surveyed,  probably  a 
large  portion  is  still  ungranted ;  and  of  the  granted,  at 
least  two-thirds  is  still  uncleared.  But  in  Eimouski 
alone,  there  are  still  four  millions  of  acres  of  unexplored, 
and,  except  to  the  lumberers,  almost  unknown  wilderness. 
In  this  county,  in  1848,  about  8,000  acres  of  land  were 
sold,  one-third  of  it  to  new  settlers ;  and  the  value  of 
cleared  land,  within  the  last  ten  years,  has  increased  15 
per  cent.  Even  this  remote  county  is  advancing,  there- 
fore ;  but,  at  this  rate  of  increase,  how  very  many  years 
must  pass  before  all  the  available  land  can  be  subjected 
J  to  the  plough  ? 

But  the  rapidity  of  settlement  even  where,  as  in  these 
counties,  it  chiefly  depends  on  the  natural  increase  of 
the  population,  advances  in  a  geometrical  progression. 
Land  and  subsistence  are  easily  obtained  on  the  seigno- 
ries,  and  the  climate  is  healthy ;  the  habitants  marry 
young,  and  have  large  families.  The  clearings  through 
which  I  passed  to-day  were  all  made  by  French  Cana- 
dians. My  driver  was  one  of  fourteen  children — was 
himself  the  father  of  fourteen,  and  assured  me  that  from 
eight  to  sixteen  was  the  usual  number  of  the  farmers' 
families.  He  even  named  one  or  two  women  who  had 
brought  their  husbands  five-and-twenty,  and  threatened 
"  le  vingt-sixi^me  pour  le  pretre."  I  expressed  my 
surprise  at  these  large  families.  "  Oui,  Monsieur,"  said 
he,  "  vous  avez  raifeon.  Nous  sommes  terribles  pour  les 
enfant s  !  " 

The  eldest  son  usuai'y  succeeds  to  the  father's  farm; 
the  younger  sons  are  jw^  "ec?  upon  new  farms,  which  the 
father  helps  to  buy  or  ci.'ar.  The  rate  at  which  the 
Government  land  is  sold  is  half-a-Jollar  an  acre — thirtv 


' 


SUBDIVISION  OF  FARMS. 


347 


or  forty  dollars  for  a  farm  one  acre  broad  and  thirty  or 
forty  deep — four  years  being  allowed  to  make  the  pay- 
ment. The  seignenrs  in  this  district  concede  for  a 
yearly  reserved  rent  of  half-a-dollar  for  the  lot,  and 
one-twelfth  of  the  value  at  each  change  of  ownership. 

But  it  is  not  all  parents  who  are  thus  provident  for 
their  children,  or  in  all  localities  that  land  can  be 
obtained  so  near  the  paternal  home  that  the  children 
shall  not  object  to  remove  it.  According  to  the  French 
law,  the  father's  property  is  shared  out  among  his 
children  when  he  dies ;  and  thus,  in  many  cases,  instead 
of  leaving  the 


,  «,x»vi  i,.ii4o.  m  many  cases, 
home-farm   wholly  to   the   eldest 


son. 


the  family  of  sons  parcel  it  out  among  themselves. 
Four  sons  will  divide  a  farm  of  two  arpents  in  front, 
and  thirty  or  forty  backwards,  into  four  long  stripes  of 
half  an  arpent  broad  in  front,  and  thirty  or  forty  in 
length.  Thus  the  evils  necessarily  attendant  upon  the 
original  shape  of  the  farms  become  manifold  increased  ; 
the  morcellement  proceeds,  unhappily,  in  some  localities, 
as  it  has  already  done  in  so  many  districts  of  France 
and  Belgium :  and  the  poverty  of  the  people  advances 
in  proportion.  It  is  the  exact  counterpart  of  the  sub- 
division into  long  stripes  which  has  led  to  such  evil 
results  among  the  sub-tenantry  on  many  estates  in 
Ireland — a  similar  Celtic  population. 

The  effect  which  such  a  subdivision,  followed  by  the 
building  of  houses  along  the  road-side  upon  each  lot, 
must  have  upon  the  apparent  populousness  of  the  coun- 
try, in  the  eye  of  the  traveller,  cannot  fail  to  strike 
the  reader. 

The  system  of  clearing  adopted  in  Lower  Canada 
seems  to  be  nearly  the  same  as  I  had  already  seen  in 
New  Brunswick;  and  the  log-cabins  upon  the  new 
clearings  are  quite  as  poor,  and  as  poorly  provided,  as 
those  of  the  Irish  immigrants  into  that  province. 

In  this  day's  ride,  however,  I  was  struck  with  the 


348 


RESEMBLANCE  TO  THE   IRISH. 


it!   :    < 


apparently  very  unpromising  places  in  which  some  of 
the  new  settlers  had  built  their  log-houses,  and  were 
beginning  to  clear  the  land.  In  rocky  spots,  and  along 
damp  boggy  hollows,  where  little  available  land  ap- 
peared, the  love  of  a  neighbouring  home,  I  suppose,  of 
society,  and  of  being  near  their  relations,  had  caused 
many  to  select  their  farms  and  fix  their  future  dwellings. 
The  solitude  of  the  remote  clearing,  where  the  land  is 
better — into  which  even  the  Irishman  with  his  family, 
supported  and  sustained  by  his  passion  for  the  "  bit  of 
land,"  will  boldly  venture — is  unsuited  to  the  less  ener- 
getic and  self-dependent  habits  of  the  French  Canadian 
and  his  superstltiously-religious  feelings. 

The  monuments  of  their  Industry,  however — as  in 
some  of  the  rocky  parts  of  Ireland — are  every  now  and 
then  conspicuous  in  these  unpromising  places.  The 
piles  of  stones,  of  all  sizes,  I  saw  collected  here  and 
there,  as  I  drove  through  the  clearings,  spoke  strongly 
not  only  for  their  industry  but  for  their  perseverance. 
The  fields,  when  thus  cleared,  often  afford  good  land ; 
but  the  expense  of  labour  in  clearing  these  unpromising 
spots  must  be  enormous,  and  is  quite  beyond  the  ability 
of  immigrant  settlers  from  a  foreign  country. 

I  was  struck  to-day  with  a  general  resemblance  in  the 
outward  appearance  of  this  people  to  our  poorer  Irish. 
The  broken  panes  in  the  windows  of  the  houses  were 
stuffed  with  old  hats,  and  the  clothes  on  the  backrt  of  the 
peasantry  were  often  in  tatters.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  stylish  French  character  of  the  improved  houses, 
whitened  over  with  quicklime,  and  the  evident  desire 
everywhere  to  build  these  better  houses,  showed  an 
apparent  aversion  to  live  in  misery  and  filth,  for  which 
the  humbler  Irish  are  by  no  means  distinguished.  Even 
here,  however,  the  likeness  may  be  thought  to  hold. 
These  externally  fine  houses  are  anythmg  but  clean  and 
comfortable — according  to  our  notions — within  j  and  the 


PREVALENCE  OF  MOUTGAGES. 


349 


love  of  this  kind  of  display  too  often  leads  the  poorer 
farmer  to  spend  upon  a  house  what  he  must  raise  by  a 
mortgage  upon  his  farm^  and  is  frequently  the  cause  of 
his  losing  both  house  and  farm  to  a  pressing  mortgagee, 
and  being  compelled  to  begin  the  world  in  a  log-house 
anew. 

Among  the  matters  of  social  economy,  indeed,  which 
have  struck  me  most,  not  only  in  the  British  provinces, 
but  in  New  England  and  in  the  eastern  States  of  the 
Union,  is  the  very  wide  extent  to  which,  according  to  the 
information  I  received,  the  property  of  these  small  farm 
proprietors  is  mortgaged.  The  surest  way  of  obtaining 
possession  of  a  coveted  farm  is  to  advance  money  on  it 
by  mortgage,  as,  in  a  very  large  majority  of  oases,  the 
unhappy  borrower  is  unable  to  pay  off  his  debt.  It  may 
be  the  consequence  of  the  failures  of  crops  of  late  years, 
or  of  that  general  imprudence  of  the  farmers  in  the 
lumbering  districts  to  which  I  alluded  in  my  former 
chapters  on  New  Brunswick ;  but  that  these  records  of 
debt  and  difficulty  among  the  farming  community  of 
North  America  generally  are  at  the  present  time  very 
numerous,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt. 

This  Rimouski  district  is  a  lumbering  country  still  to 
some  extent,  and,  in  consequence,  labour  is  dearer  than 
in  the  other  counties.  From  £18  to  £25  currency,  with 
board  and  lodging,  are  the  wages  of  a  farm-servant ; 
while  carpenters  and  other  hana'^iraftsn^en  receive  a 
dollar  a-day.  That  wages  should  be  so  much  higher 
here  than  they  ar  3  a  couple  of  days'  journey  up  the 
river,  shows  either  how  unwilling  the  natives  aie  to 
leave  their  own  neighbourhood,  or  how  little  is  the 
intercourse  which  exists  between  the  inhabitants  of  the 
different  counties. 

The  whole  drive  duw-n  the  St  Lawrence — in  fact,  the 
course  of  the  river  itself — is  along  the  strike  of  the  older 
iSilurian  beds.     The  country  which  the  road  traverses 


;  In 

n 

1 

: 

in  ' 

M  i 

'   I: 

1 

ll 

Il 


I 


fi/Ji:^ 


350 


BOG-STUFF   OF  THE  SAVANNAHS. 


consists  of  flats  along  the  shores  of  the  river,  or  of  longi- 
tudinal valleys  between  opposite  hilly  ridges,  more  or 
less  rocky,  from  between  which  the  edges  of  softer  beds 
have  probably  been  scooped  out  before  the  latest  uplift- 
ings  of  the  whole  land  took  place.  Inland  the  country 
consists,  for  a  great  distance,  of  alternate  ridges  and 
valleys — a  prolongation  of  the  mountains  of  Vermont 
and  New  Hampshire. 

In  occasionally  passing  fi'om  one  of  these  valleys  to 
another,  we  ascended  and  travelled  for  some  distance 
along  the  upland.  Where  the  slates  happened  to  be  soft 
and  crumbly,  the  soil  of  tiiese  uplands  was  almost  always 
good ;  while  it  was  rocky,  stony,  or  light,  and  of  little 
depth,  where  the  slates  were  harder,  or  of  a  more  meta- 
morphic  character.  In  the  bottoms  of  the  valleys,  as  in 
this  climate  we  should  expect,  bogs  were  frequent — 
savannahs,  as  they  are  here  called — of  a  deep  black 
earth,  formed  in  the  same  way  as  our  peat-bogs,  but 
different  in  the  physical  qualities  of  the  material  of  which 
they  consist.  The  fibrous  tenacity  of  our  peat  is  wholly 
wanting ;  a  epungy  but  crumbling  black  vegetable 
mould  is  the  almost  universal  material  of  the  North 
American  bogs — unfit  for  the  manufacture  of  peat,  but 
of  great  use  to  the  farmer,  and  highly  valued  for  the 
preparation  of  fertilising  composts.  The  absence  of  the 
heaths  and  mosses,  of  which  our  bogs  are  formed,  and 
the  roots  of  which  long  remain  undecayed  in  the  brown, 
and  even  in  the  black  peat,  together  with  the  greater 
extremes  of  summer  and  winter  temperature  to  which 
the  decaying  matter  is  exposed  in  North  America,  are 
probably  the  main  causes  to  which  the  difference  in  the 
physical  qualities  of  the  bog-stmi  in  Europe  and  America 
are  to  be  ascribed.  Travellers  in  New  England,  who 
are  interested  in  agriculture,  will  be  surprised  to  hear 
this  black  bog-earth  universally  spoken  of  in  conversa- 
tion, and  in  agricultural  books,  under  the  name  of  muck 


3. 

[",  or  of  longi- 
^es,  more  or 
if  softer  beds 
latest  uplift- 
1  tbe  country 
:e  ridges  and 
I  of  Vermont 

ese  valleys  to 
5ome  distance 
ned  to  be  soft 
almost  always 
,  and  of  little 
a  more  meta- 
I  valleys,  as  in 
re  frequent — 
a  deep  black 
seat-bogs,  but 
terial  of  whicli 
peat  is  wbcily 
ack  vegetable 
of  the  North 
of  peat,  but 
alued  for  the 
jsence  of  the 
formed,  and 
in  the  brown, 
the  greater 
ture  to  which 
America,  are 
erence  in  the 
and  America 
:ingland,  who 
riscd  to  hear 
in  conversa- 
lame  of  muck 


DIFFICULTIES  OP   RIMOUSKI. 


351 


h 


It  is  a  mark  of  the  condition  of  agriculture  in  these 
countries,  that  the  old  word  muck,  (never  mentioned  now 
to  ears  polite,)  which  means  the  same  thing  as  manure, 
should  have  obtained  a  specific  application  to  this  black 
earth.  It  shows  not  only  how  much  in  general  has  been 
neglected  among  them,  but  to  what  kind  of  muck  of 
nature's  making,  when  they  at  length  found  it  necessary 
to  apply  something  to  their  land,  they  were  content  to 
intrust  the  safety  and  productiveness  of  their  crops. 

It  was  already  becoming  dark  when  I  reached  the 
town  of  llimouski,  and  I  was  driven  up  in  succession  to 
several  French  houses  where  strangers  were  said  to  be 
received,  but  was  dismissed  unceremoniously  from  one 
after  another.  At  length  I  pulled  up  at  a  shop  kept 
by  an  Irishman,  where  strangers  were  accustomed 
to  lodge ;  but  here,  too,  I  was  told  that  no  enter- 
tainment could  be  had.  Through  the  kindness  of  my 
friend.  Professor  Horan,  of  the  seminary  at  Quebec,  I 
had  been  provided  with  a  letter  of  general  recommenda- 
tion to  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  on  my  route,  which 
I  meant  to  use  only  in  case  of  an  emergency  arising ; 
and  I  was  about  to  order  my  cocher  to  drive  to  the  jyres- 
hytere,  which  was  large,  comfortable-looking,  and  near 
at  hand,  when  a  female  came  to  the  door  of  the  house. 
The  sound  of  an  English  tongue  in  her  ears  soon 
smoothed  all  difiiculties,  and  I  was  speedily  admitted, 
and  made  as  welcome  as  her  means  would  admit,  But 
her  husband  was  a  sad  screw,  and  provoked  me  much 
by  the  detention  he  caused  on  the  following  morning,  in 
failing  to  procure  for  me,  according  to  promise,  the 
means  of  advancing  on  my  journey. 

The  reason  of  my  being  bandied  about  from  house  to 
house  proved  to  be,  that  my  French  companion  took  me 
from  one  French  house  to  another,  where  they  refused  to 
receive  me  because  I  was  English  ;  and  then,  when  I  got 
to  the  Irishman's  house,  I  was  refused  again,  because, 


r   i 


\ 


352 


SCOTCH   SETTLERS  AT   MITIS. 


till  I  began  to  speak  for  myself,  I  was  believed  to  be 
French. 

Oct.  5. — After  an  unpleasant  delay  in  procuring  a 
conveyance,  I  was  again  on  my  way  from  the  little  town 
of  Rimouski  towards  Mitis.  A  tolerably  good  road — the 
latter  part  of  it  close  to  the  river — a  good  horse  and  an 
intelligent  driver,  made  the  morning's  drive  agreeable, 
and  I  reached  Mitis  about  one  o'clock.  By  the  way 
were  many  French  settlements  scattered  at  intervals, 
and  now  and  then  a  superior-looking  house.  My  driver, 
himself  a  thriving  farmer,  informed  me  that  here,  as  else- 
where, his  countrymen  often  built  houses  beyond  their 
means.  Passing  one  of  more  than  ordinary  pretension, 
which  had  cost  £500,  he  remarked  that  the  owner  had 
contracted  much  debt  in  building  it,  and  that,  when  his 
farm  came  to  be  sold,  it  would  not  bring  more  than  the 
sura  which  the  new  dwelling-house  alone  had  cost. 

Around  Mitis,  which  is  not  even  a  village,  there  is 
much  good  hardwood — maple-land.  About  thirty  years 
ago  the  first  house  was  built  in  this  neighbourhood,  and 
now  there  is  a  large  settlement  of  prosperous  farmers, 
the  greater  part  of  them  Scotch,  who  settled  here  a 
number  of  years  ago.  Few  settlers  from  Scotland  have 
come  to  this  place  during  the  last  few  years ;  but  the 
habitants  are  flocking  to  it  from  the  higher  parts  of  the 
St  Lawrence,  partly  because  the  land  is  good  and  crops 
excellent,  and  partly  because  some  of  it  at  least  can  be 
obtained  in  freehold.  The  greater  part  of  the  land 
around  Mitis  is  held  from  the  seigneur,  but  the  Govern- 
ment also  possesses  land  which  is  sold  at  from  Is.  to  4s, 
an  acre.  From  the  conversations  I  had  with  the  natives, 
they  seemed  to  value  highly  the  freedom  from  annual 
payments,  and  from  the  droits  de  vent,  or  as  they 
expressed  it,  "  being  the  seigneurs  of  their  own  land." 

Mitis  lies  at  the  northern  extremity  of  what  is  called 
the  Kempt  Road,   which   connects  the  waters  of  the 


elieved  to  be 


THE   KEMPT  ROAD. 


353 


Restigouche  with  those  of  the  St  Lawrence.  Along 
this  road  there  are  as  yet  scarcely  any  settlements,  tlie 
population  of  the  Lower  St  Lawrence  being  chiefly  con- 
lined  as  yet  to  a  stripe  of  a  few  miles  broad  along  the 
river.  The  extra  produce  in  grain,  &c.,  is  shipped  to 
Quebec,  from  whence  all  necessary  supplies  are  obtained 
in  return.  A  merchant  located  at  Mitis,  and  with  whom 
I  took  up  my  quarters,  serves  as  the  medium  of  com- 
munication between  the  farmers  of  the  district  and  the 
importers  of  Quebec.  In  autumn  he  gathers  in  his  debts, 
in  the  form  of  produce,  from  his  neighbours;  and  in 
return  for  these,  obtains  his  winter's  supply  of  tea, 
coffee,  and  clothing  from  the  capital  of  the  province. 

These  supplies,  during  the  winter  and  spring,  he  again 
sells  chiefly  on  credit,  and  waits  for  his  payment  till 
harvest  comes.  The  system  is  worse  for  the  farmer  than 
the  merchant,  whose  profits  are  large. 

I  found  it  necessary  here  to  engage  a  horse  and  light 
waggon  to  take  me  all  the  way  across  the  peninsula 
traversed  by  the  Kempt  Road,  a  distance  of  eighty  miles, 
as  neither  horse  nor  conveyance  were  likely  to  be  obtamed 
hy  the  way.  1  was  glad  to  find  that  nothing  was  said 
as  to  the  practicability  of  conveying  myself  and  my  port- 
manteau along  this  route,  which  my  friends  in  New 
Brunswick  had  assured  me  I  should  find  next  to  impos- 
sible. But  diflSculties  always  lessen  when  you  look  them 
fairly  in  the  face ;  and  I  had  afterwards  occasion  to  find 
that,  in  regard  to  many  other  things  having  a  relation  to 
their  own  country,  the  New  Brunswickers  knew  quite  as 
little  as  I  did  myself. 

I  found  it  impossible,  however,  to  arrange  for  proceed- 
ing further  to-day,  and  was  therefore  obliged  to  postpone 
my  departure  from  Mitis  to  an  early  hour  to-morrow 
morning. 

VOL.  I.  Z 


\w 


Hi 


\M 


I 


CHAPTEE   XIII. 


Ideas  generally  entertained  of  American  fertility  and  agricultural 
resources. — Reports  of  travellers.— Desire  to  obtain  accurate  infor- 
mation.— Condition  of  agriculture  as  an  art  in  North  America. — 
Contrast  between  Europe  and  America. — General  effect  of  an  exhaust- 
ing culture  upon  the  soil. — Effect  sometimes  produced  very  slowly.— 
Instance  of  old  abbey -lands.— Claim  of  monasteries  to  the  manure  of 
their  tenants'  stables. — Effect  of  general  exhaustion  on  the  production 
of  staple  crops. — Its  effect  on  the  wheat-lands  of  North  America. — 
Their  retreat  towards  the  west. — Liability  of  plants  to  disease  on 
impoverished  lands.  —  Remarkable  change  of  cultivation  in  Lower 
Canada  during  the  last  twenty  years. — Great  diminution  in  the  wheat 
and  increase  in  the  oat  crop. — Loss  and  disaster  which  must  have 
accompanied  such  a  change. — Effect  of  this  change  on  the  corn- 
markets  of  the  world. — Lower  Canada  become  wheat-importing  and 
oat-consuming. — Disastrous  effect  of  the  potato  failure. — Similar 
changes  threaten  to  follow  similar  modes  of  culture  in  other  parts  of 
North  America. — The  wheat,- exporting  capability  will  diminish— 
Manuring  system  of  Scottish  farmers  who  sell  or  carry  off  their 
crops  as  is  done  in  America.  —  Possible  continued  and  extensive 
supply  of  Indian  corn. — Import-duty  in  the  United  States  upon  com 
from  Canada  :  should  it  be  removed  1  —  Would  it  on  the  whole  be 
beneficial  to  Canada? — Zeal  for  improvement  in  Upper  Canada.— 
Why  do  Rochester  millers  compete  with  the  Canadian  in  Liverpool, 
in  flour  made  from  Canadian  wheat  ? — Occasional  low  freights  of  the 
New  York  liners. — Use  of  Canadian  wheat  for  mixing.  —  Alleged 
large  mercantile  profits  cxpectad  in  Canada, — Profits  derived  from 
dealings  in  land. — Profit  of  a  direct  trade  in  flour  between  Montreal 
and  Liverpool. — Growth  of  flax  in  Canada,  and  export  of  linseed.— 
Instance  of  the  close  relation  of  discoveries  in  science  to  the  profits 
of  agriculture,  and  the  agricultural  capabilities  of  a  country.— Com- 
parative freights  by  the  St  Lawrence  to  Liverpool,  and  by  the  Erie 
Canal  through  New  York. — St  Lawrence  the  natural  outlet  of  the 
lake-bordering  countries.  —  Great  expertness  with  which  the  Erie 


P'-r* 


HOME  NOTIONS  OP  AMERICAN  FERTILITY. 


ass 


Canal  in  worked. — Overflow  of  traffic  upon  tliat  canal. — Great  exer- 
tions of  Canada  in  the  construction  (»f  canals. — The  Wclland  Canal. 
— Canals  along  the  rapids  of  the  St  Lawrence;  their  extent  and  cost. 
— Energy  of  Canada  compared  with  that  of  New  York.— St  Law- 
rence route  now  takes  less  timo  than  that  by  the  Erie  Canal. — Money 
cost  of  transport  is  also  less. —  Ohio  wheat  will  take  the  St  Lawrence 
instead  of  the  MisHissippi  route.  —  Importance  of  this  route  to  the 
political  independence  of  the  free  North-westeni  States. — Ditiiculties 
in  the  navigation  of  the  Lower  St  Lawrence.— Structure  of  its  bed 
nnd  channels.^ — Risk^,  and  high  insurance. — Need  of  lighthouses  and 
depots  of  stores  at  the  mouth  of  the  river. — Traffic  by  the  Richelieu 
Canal  and  Lake  Chaniplain. — Rising  importance  of  this. — Projected 
now  ship-canal. — Future  prospects  of  the  St  Lawrence  navigation. 

Before  I  leave  the  shores  of  the  St  Lawrence,  there 
are  a  few  points  in  connection  with  the  agriculture  and 
national  economy  of  Canada  which  have  been  the  sub- 
jects of  observation  and  of  interesting  consideration  to 
myself,  and  which  most  of  those  readers  who  have  accom- 
panied me  thus  far  in  my  book  will  not  regret  to  have 
their  attention  drawn  to.     Until  I  personally  visited 
North  America,  my  own  notions  as  to  the  agricultural 
condition,  capabilities,  and  resources  of  the  several  new 
provinces  and  States,  were,  I  now  find,  notwithstanding 
all  I  had  heard  and  read,  of  the  crudest,  most  general, 
and  indefinite  character.     The  exaggerations  of  inter- 
ested natives  and  settlers,  and  the  repetition  of  such 
exaggerations    by    travellers    who    knew    nothing    of 
agriculture  themselves,  and,  like  myself  some  dozen  years 
ago,  could  scarcely  distinguish  bad  land  from  good — 
these  were  all  the  information  our  journals  and  yearly 
literature  afforded  us.     That  wheat  and  Indian  corn 
poured  in  upon  us  at  times  from  those  regions,  we  knew  ; 
that  some  portions  of  the  country  were  rich  and  fertile, 
we  could  not  doubt ;  and  the  general  conclusion  in  the 
public  mind  was,  that  these  new  countries  were  generally 
fertile — that  inferior  land  was  the  exception — that  large 
crops  were  everywhere  reaped — that  the  fertility  of  the 
whole  region   was  inexhaustible  —  that  the  supply  of 


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23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  MSSO 

(716)  872-4503 


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356 


CONDITION  OP  AGRICULTURE 


wheat  it  could  send  ua  was  without  bounds — and  that  if 
those  who  tilled  the  land  and  raised  the  corn  in  these 
countries  were  not  so  skilful  as  the  average  of  our  own 
farmers,  this  was  only  another  evidence  that  nature  there 
was  kinder  to  the  tiller  of  the  soil  than  she  is  in  our  own 
country,  and  did  not  demand  at  his  hands  either  the 
same  amount  of  knowledge,  or  the  same  unwearied 
application  of  ceaseless  toil.  - 

One  of  my  objects  in  visiting  North  America  was  to 
remove  the  mistiness  of  my  own  ideas  as  to  the  agricul- 
tural character  and  condition  of  its  several  great  regions, 
to  test  the  seeming  exaggerations  in  which,  as  if  by  some 
natural  law,  the  natives  and  residents  of  this  northern 
part  of  the  New  World  are  inclined  to  indulge.  I  was 
desirous,  also,  of  obtaining  a  clear  idea  of  the  relation 
whjch  American  practice  bears  to  English  practice ;  the 
prospects  and  success  of  individual  American  to  those  of 
individual  English  and  Scotch  farmers  ;  American  past 
and  future  surplus  wheat  to  the  state  and  demands  of  the 
English  market;  the  life  of  the  settler  in  these  new 
countries  to  the  life  he  would  have  led  had  he  remained 
at  home.  On  a  few  of  these  points  I  have  arrived  at 
clear  and  definite  notions — not  hastily,  I  believe — though 
some  of  them  may  still  be  incorrect.  It  is  some  remarks 
upon  these  I  wish  briefly  to  put  down  in  this  place. 

And  first,  as  to  the  condition  of  agriculture  as  an 
art  of  life,  it  cannot  be  denied  that,  in  this  region,  as  a 
whole,  it  is  in  a  very  primitive  condition.  Before  the 
first  Puritan  emigrants  landed  at  Plymouth,  the  Indians 
planted  and  hoed  and  reaped  their  com  much  as  the 
white  settlers  do  now,  and,  like  them,  deserted  old  land 
for  new  when  the  crops  began  to  fail.  Many  operations, 
it  is  true,  are  now  performed  upon  existing  farms  which 
were  unknown  to  the  Indian  races ;  but  a  similar  absence 
of  skill  and  forethought  is  generally  observable  in  refer- 
ence both  to  the  mode  of  performing  them  and  to  their 


AS  AN  ABT  IN  NOBTH  AMERICA. 


367 


and  that  if 
rn  in  these 
of  our  own 
lature  there 
in  our  own 
either  the 
unwearied 

rica  was  to 
the  agricul- 
eat  regions, 
IS  if  by  some 
lis  northern 
ilge.    I  was 
the  relation 
)ractice;  the 
1  to  those  of 
nerican  past 
mands  of  the 
I  these  new 
he  remained 
3  arrived  at 
eve — though 
ome  remarks 
is  place, 
ulture  as  an 
region,  as  a 

Before  the 
,  the  Indians 
much  as  the 
ted  old  land 
y  operations, 

farms  which 
nilar  absence 
able  in  refer- 

and  to  their 


after  effect  upon  the  land.  I  speak,  it  will  be  borne  in 
mind,  in  these  remarks,  of  the  newly  settled  parts  of 
North  America ;  and  the  more  newly  settled  the  more 
closely  will  they  apply.  I  would  not  be  understood  to 
calumniate  those  longer  cultivated  districts  in  which — the 
first  stage  of  their  agricultural  history  being  past — new 
life  and  energy  are  now  being  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
culture  of  the  land,  and  by  which  the  errors  of  past 
ignorance  and  want  of  skill  may  by-and-by  be  repaired, 
or  of  those  happier  new  districts  which  men  of  knowledge 
and  capital  are  redeeming  from  a  state  of  nature,  and  at 
once  submitting  to  a  rational  system  of  culture,  capable 
of  being  carried  on  for  an  indefinite  period  without  injury 
to  the  land. 

Were  the  population  as  fond  of  their  homes,  and  as 
stationary  in  numbers,  as  in  the  central  regions  of  north- 
em  Europe — as  quiescent  in  character,  their  labour  as 
small  in  money-value,  and  everywhere  as  abundant,  and 
their  institutions  as  repressive  of  exuberant  energy — this 
primitive  condition  of  the  agricultural  practice  would  be 
both  less  felt  among  themselves,  and  be  a  matter  of  less 
observation  to  foreign  countries.  As  in  Poland  and 
Russia,  land  which  had  become  unproductive  would  be 
abandoned  to  nature,  and  new  land  broken  up  year  by 
year.  Thus  supplies  of  food  comparatively  uniform 
would  be  yearly  reaped,  sufficient  not  only  to  meet  the 
wants  of  the  native  population,  but  to  pour  a  large  annual 
surplus  into  foreign  markets,  wherever  a  demand  might 
happen  to  exist. 

But  all  these  things  are  different  in  North  America. 
The  population  increases  rapidly,  not  only  by  natural 
growth,  but  by  the  crowding  in  of  immigrants  from  the 
various  countries  of  Europe ;  and  thus  the  mouths  are 
greatly  multiplied  which  are  to  be  filled  by  the  native 
produce  of  the  land.  Labour  is  comparatively  dear,  so 
that  new  land  cannot  be  cleared  and  brought  into  culti- 


iii 


358 


GRADUAL  EXHAUSTION   OP  THE  LAND. 


vation  as  fast  as  the  old  is  worn  out,  were  new  land  even 
everywhere  available,  which  in  the  more  settled  parts  of 
the  country,  already  divided  into  small  farms,  it  usually 
is  not.  Besides,  the  majority  of  those  who  boast  of 
Anglo-Saxon  blood  are  generally  energetic,  and  their 
institutions  incline  them  to  push  everything  forward  as 
in  a  race — their  wide  continent  holding  out  to  them  many 
dazzling  hopes  and  sources  of  gain.  They  labour,  there- 
fore, those  who  till  the  soil,  to  make  as  much  and  take 
as  much  out  of  the  land  as  they  can,  and  in  the  least 
possible  time ;  probably  without  either  thinking  or  wish- 
ing that  their  accual  residence  is  to  be  the  future  home 
either  of  themselves  or  of  their  children,  but  rather  that 
interest  or  expediency  may  by-and-by  carry  them  all  to 
happier  homes  in  the  farther  west. 

The  result  or  effect,  therefore,  of  this  condition  of  the 
rurd  art,  and  of  the  agricultural  population,  upon  the 
state  of  the  soil,  is  to  bring  it  by  degrees  into  a  state  of 
more  or  less  complete  exhaustion.  Whatever  be  its 
quality  or  natural  fertility,  this  is  the  final  and  inevitable 
result.  In  land  which  is  very  rich,  the  effect  is  produced 
more  slowly — so  slow,  that  those  who  hold  land  which  for 
fifty  or  a  hundred  years  has  yielded  crops  of  corn  without 
the  addition  of  manure,  will  scarcely  believe  in  the  pos- 
sibility of  its  ceasing  at  last  to  give  its  wonted  returns. 
But  old  experience  and  modern  science  alike  demon- 
strate that  the  richest  soils,  by  constant  cropping,  without 
the  addition  of  manuring  substances  to  replace  what  the 
crops  carry  off,  must  ultimately  arrive  at  a  state  of  com- 
parative barrenness. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  men  should  be  faith- 
less upon  this  point,  when  it  is  considered  how  grateful 
the  soil  is  for  kind  treatment,  and  how  very  long,  in  some 
cases,  it  is  before  it  begins  to  resent  a  contrary  course  of 
procedure.  The  lifetime  of  one  man  may  be  spent  in  gra- 
dually improving  and  enriching  a  field  by  skilful  manage- 


D. 

'  land  even 
ed  parts  of 
i,  it  usually 
lO  boast  of 
,  and  their 
forward  as 
them  many 
jour,  there- 
1  and  take 
n  the  least 
ig  or  wish- 
iture  home 
rather  that 
them  all  to 

[ition  of  the 
n,  upon  the 
;o  a  state  of 
ever  be  its 
d  inevitable 
is  produced 
d  which  for 
orn  without 
in  the  pos- 
ted returns, 
ike  demon- 
ng,  without 
ce  what  the 
ate  of  com- 

ild  be  faith- 
ow  grateful 
>ng,  in  some 
ry  course  of 
pent  in  gra- 
ful  manage- 


OLD  ABBEY -LANDS. 


359 


raent,  and  the  whole  lives  of  two  successors  may  be 
employed  in  impoverishing  it  again  without  reducing  it 
to  the  low  condition  from  which  it  had  originally  been 
raised. 

We  have  in  England  many  remarkable  instances  of 
this  latter  fact,  which,  in  the  neighbourhood  in  which  they 
occur,  are  often  considered  inexplicable.  Near  the  ruins 
of  old  abbeys  and  monasteries,  for  example,  which  have 
been  long  demolished,  a  few  fields  are  often  observed 
which  exceed  in  fertility  all  the  adjoining  land,  and, 
though  treated  no  better  than  the  rest,  have  ever  within 
the  memory  of  man  given  better  crops.  Facts  of  this 
kind  are  to  be  explained  by  a  reference  to  the  customs 
of  the  time  when  the  ecclesiastical  buildings  still  flou- 
rished. It  was  the  habit  of  the  officials  of  the  church  or 
monastery  to  collect,  as  a  due,  all  the  manure  made  by 
the  cattle  and  sheep  of  the  cottars  or  tenants  who  held 
under  it,  and  to  apply  it  to  the  home  farm,  which  was 
cultivated  for  the  immediate  use  of  the  church.  The 
holders  of  land,  by  way  of  rent,  for  every  four  acres  they 
held,  were  in  some  instances  bound  to  plough  one  acre 
for  the  church ;  and  to  this,  and  to  the  gra^s  land  kept  in 
their  own  hands,  the  servants  of  the  church  applied  the 
manure  which  they  took  from  the  tenantry.*    It  cannot, 

*  Illustrations  are  to  be  found  in  the  following  extracts  from  the 
Chronicles  of  Jocelyn  of  Brakelond,  pp.  29  and  30  : — 

"  And  it  was  done  accordingly,  and  confirmed  by  our  charter,  that 
there  be  given  to  them  another  quittance  from  a  certain  customary  pay- 
ment, which  is  called  sorpeni,*  for  four  shillings,  payable  at  the  same 
term.  The  cellarer  was  also  used  to  receive  one  penny,  by  the  year, 
for  every  cow  belonging  to  the  men  of  the  town  for  their  dung,  (unless, 
perchance,  they  happened  to  be  the  cows  of  the  chaplains  or  the  ser- 
vants at  the  court  lodge  ;)  and  these  cows  ho  was  used  to  impound,  and 
occupied  himself  much  in  such  matters. 

"  The  cellarer  was  to  have  the  ploughings  and  the  other  services — to 

*  Sorpeni.  This  word  U  the  same  as  scharpenny  or  scliarnpenny— that  is,  dung-penny, 
from  »cfieam,  dung.  By  this  it  seems  tlie  tenants  were  bound,  as  being  originally  bond- 
men, to  pen  up  tlieir  cattle  at  niglit  in  the  pound  or  yard  of  their  lord,  for  the  benefit  of 
tlicur  duDg ;  and  if  they  did  not  do  so,  they  paid  this  dung-penny  as  a  compensation. 


I 


360 


THEIR  VERY  GRADUAL  EXHAUSTION. 


I  think,  be  doubted,  that  the  differences  still  observed 
in  the  fertility  of  lands  adjoining  the  ruins  of  monastic 
houses,  are  in  part  to  be  ascribed  to  the  long  continuance 
of  a  practice  by  which  the  natural  fertilising  substances  of 
a  whole  neighbourhood  were  lavished  on  a  comparatively 
restricted  space.  That  it  is  very  long  since  this  marked 
distinction  was  made  in  favour  of  the  abbey  home-farm, 
is  the  point  I  wish  to  bring  out.  It  shows  that  land  is 
very  grateful,  and  that  when  once  enriched,  either  by 
nature  or  by  the  hand  of  man,  it  may  long  resist  exhaus- 
tion, and  maintain  a  decided  superiority  over  that  which 
adjoins  it.  But  its  doing  so  is  no  proof  that,  though 
later,  it  will  not  also  be  finally  exhausted,  if  submitted 
to  inconsiderate  and  selfish  modes  of  culture. 

The  first  practical  or  economical  consequence  of  this 
exhaustion  of  the  land  is,  that  it  gradually  ceases  to  pro- 
duce, a  remunerative  return  of  those  crops  which  have 
been  specially  cultivated  upon,  and  have  been  the  imme- 
diate means  of  exhausting  it.  In  North  America,  gene- 
rally, this  crop  has  been  wheat — as  this  has  always  been 
the  kind  of  grain  for  which  the  most  ready  market  could 
be  obtained,  or  which  could  be  most  certainly  exchanged 
for  the  West  India  produce  and  the  manufactured  articles 
which  the  settler  required.    As  the  exhausting  culture 


sun. 


\vit,  the  ploughing  of  one  rood  for  each  acre,  without  meals,  (which 
custom  is  still  observed,)  and  was  to  have  the  folds  where  all  the  men 
of  the  town,  except  the  steward,  who  has  his  own  fold,  are  bound  to  put 

their  sheep,  (which  custom,  also,  is  still  observed.) 

"  Also,  the  cellarer  was  used  freely  to  take  all  the  dunghills  in  every 
street,  before  the  doors  of  those  who  wero  holding  overland  ;  for  to 
them  only  was  it  allowable  to  collect  dung,  and  to  keep  it.  This  custom 
was  not  enforced  in  the  time  of  the  Abbot  Hugh,  up  to  the  period  when 
Dennis  and  Roger  of  Hingham  became  cellarers,  who,  being  desirous  of 
reviving  the  ancient  custom,  took  the  cars  of  the  burgesses,  laden  with 
dung,  and  made  them  unload ;  but  a  multitude  of  the  burgesses  resist- 
ing, and  being  too  strong  for  them,  every  one  in  his  own  tenement  now 
collects  his  dung  in  a  heap,  and  the  poor  sell  theirs  when  and  to  whom 
they  choose." 


SHIFTING  OP  THE  WHEAT-REGION. 


361 


proceeded,  therefore  the  quantity  of  wheat  raised  beyond 
the  demands  of  the  state  or  colony — that  is,  the  surplus 
for  exportation — gradually  decreased. 

I  need  not  enter  into  details  upon  this  point ;  the  grand 
consequence  is  such  as  I  have  described,  and  the  general 
proof  of  it  is,  that  the  wheat-exporting  regions  of  North 
America  have,  as  I  have  already  stated  in  my  remarks 
upon  western  New  York,  been  gradually  shifting  their 
locality,  and  retiring  inland  and  towards  the  west.  The 
flats  of  the  Lower  St  Lawrence  were  the  granary  of 
America  in  the  times  of  French  dominion ;  western  New 
York  succeeded  these;  next  came  Canada  West;  and 
now  the  chief  surplus  exists,  and  the  main  supplies  for 
the  markets  of  Europe  are  drawn  from  the  newer  regions 
beyond  the  lakes.  These  in  their  turn,  as  the  first  virgin 
freshness  passes  away,  will  cease  to  be  productive  of 
abundant  wheat,  and  eastern  America  must  then  look  for 
its  supplies  of  this  grain  either  to  a  better  culture  of  its 
own  exhausted  soil,  or  to  regions  still  nearer  the  setting 
sun. 

This  natural  consequence  of  an  exhausting  system  of 
culture  has  been  aided  and  hastened  by  other  causes,  the 
study  of  which  is  full  of  interest  and  instruction.  I  may 
advert  to  one  of  these. 

When  a  soil  becomes  unfavourable  to  the  growth  of 
a  plant,  the  plant,  if  made  to  grow  upon  it,  comes  up 
weak,  and  is  liable  to  disease  and  to  the  attacks  of 
insects  and  parasitic  plants.  Whether  as  a  natural  con- 
sequence of  this  kind,  arising  naturally  from  the  exhaus- 
tion of  the  soil  and  the  weakening  of  the  wheat-plant, 
or  as  the  effect  of  some  other  cause  not  understood,  it  is 
an  in^portant  fact  that  the  attacks  of  the  wheat-midge 
have,  in  Lower  Canada,  been  lending  their  aid  for  many 
years  to  diminish  the  wheat-crop  in  quantity,  and  to 
render  it  less  certain.  A  gradual  revolution,  therefore, 
has  been  taking  place,  not  only  in  the  husbandry,  but 


m 


,,.,^. ^- 


3C2 


REMARKABLE  CHANGE  OF  PRODUCE 


in  the  food  of  the  people  also,  and  in  the  kind  as  well  as 
quantity  of  the  surplus  produce  they  have  been  able  to 
bring  to  market.  I  know,  indeed,  of  no  well-ascertained 
facta  in  the  agricultural  history  of  any  country  which  are 
more  striking  in  these  respects  than  those  which  are  pre- 
sented by  a  comparison  of  the  quantities — relative  and 
absolute — of  the  different  kinds  of  grain  produced  in 
Lower  Canada,  at  successive  periods,  during  the  last 
twenty-five  years. 

The  following  table,  published  by  the  Canadian  Board 
of  Statistics  in  1849,  exhibits  the  amount  of  this  produce 
in  bushels  in  the  years  1827,  1831,  and  1844,  respec- 
tively : —  • 


1M7. 

1831. 

1844. 

Wheat,  . 

2,931,249 

3,404,756 

942,835 

Barley,  . 

363,117 

394,795 

1,195,456 

Oats, 

2,341,529 

3,142,274 

7,238,753 

Bye,      . 

217,643 

234,529 

333,446 

Indian  corn, 

333,150 

339,633 

141,003 

Buckwheat,    . 

121,397 

106,050 

374,809 

Pease,     . 

823,318 

948,758 

1,219,420 

Potatoes, 

6,796,300 

7,357,416 

9,918,869 

In  this  table  we  see  that  from  1827  to  1831,  and  pro- 
bably somewhat  later,  a  similar  state  of  things  existed, 
and  that  a  gradual  increase  took  place  in  the  amount  of 
all  the  crops  raised  ;  a  natural  consequence  of  the 
increasing  population,  and  of  the  larger  breadth  of  land 
every  year  subjected  to  the  plough.  The  wheat-crop 
increased  by  500,000  bushels,  the  oat  crop  by  800,000, 
and  the  potato  crop  by  500,000.  In  these  quantities  we 
see  a  slight  tendency  to  an  increase,  in  the  proportion  of 
oats  grown,  above  that  of  wheat  or  potatoes ;  but  in  the 
other  crops  there  is  nothing  to  arrest  especial  attention. 

In  1844,  however,  a  very  different  state  of  things  pre- 
sents itself.  During  the  interval  of  thirteen  years  (from 
1831  to  1844,)  the  wheat-crop,  instead  of  increasing 
2,000,000  bushels,  as  it  ought  to  have  done,  had  dimi- 


IN   LOWER  CANADA. 


363 


1  as  well  as 
)een  able  to 
■ascertained 
y  which  are 
ich  are  pre- 
elative  and 
)roduced  in 
ig  the  last 

idian  Board 
;hi8  produce 
144,  respec- 

1844. 

942,835 

1,195,456 

7,238,753 

333,446 

141,003 

374,809 

1,219,420 

9,918,869 

31,  and  pro- 
ngs existed, 
3  amount  of 
nee  of  the 
idth  of  land 
wheat-crop 
by  800,000, 
uantities  we 
Toportion  of 
but  in  the 
I  attention. 
'  things  pre- 
years  (from 
F  increasing 
,  had  dimi- 


nished  from  3,500,000  (its  amount  in  1831)  to  less 
than  1,000,000  bushels.  The  barley  crop,  on  the 
other  hand,  had  increased  by  800,000  bushels,  that  of 
pease  by  400,000,  of  potatoes  by  2,500,000,  and  of  oats 
by  the  enormous  quantity  of  4,000,000  bushels.  " 

Whoever  is  acquainted  with  the  practical  operations  of 
husbandry,  will  be  able  to  conceive  how  many  anxieties 
and  losses,  and  repeated  failures  of  usual  crops,  must  have 
beset  the  unhappy  farmer,  before  his  course  of  cropping 
could  be  so  changed  as  almost  entirely  to  substitute  oats 
for  wheat  in  the  fields  he  had  set  aside  for  grain.  The 
wheat  was  clung  to  by  the  Canadians  with  the  more 
pertinacity,  because  it  was  the  crop  which  brought  in 
the  annual  supplies  of  money  and  other  foreign  articles, 
and  because  it  formed  a  considerable  part  of  their  usual 
food.  The  failure  of  this  source  of  supply  brought  debts 
and  mortgages,  and  transference  of  property ;  and  to  it 
is  to  be  ascribed  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  mort- 
gages which,  as  I  have  said,  hang  round  the  necks  of 
the  rural  population,  over  so  much  of  this  part  of  north- 
eastern America. 

Tn  relation  to  the  corn-markets  of  the  world,  this  change 
converted  Lower  Canada,  on  the  whole,  from  an  exporter 
into  an  importer  of  wheat — as  it  no  longer  produced 
enough  for  its  own  consumption  ;  and  in  reference  to  a 
large  part  of  its  own  population,  which  was  unable  to  buy 
wheat,  turned  them  from  the  consumption  of  this  grain  to 
that  of  potatoes  and  oats,  with  a  lesser  quantity  of  pease 
and  barley.  This  was  before  the  failure  of  the  potato 
crop  J  and  in  this  state  of  things,  when,  by  the  previous 
failure  of  the  wheat,  the  potato  had  become  doubly  pre- 
cious, it  will  be  understood  how  the  potato  disease  must 
have  produced  a  more  intense  amount  of  suflPering  among 
the  Lower  Canadians.  The  French  population  naturally 
dislike  the  oat  for  food,  and  consume  very  unsightly  and 
distasteful  yarif  ^ies  of  soft  bread,  rather  than  live  upon 


I 


864 


NATURAL  FAILURE  OF  STAPLE  CROPS. 


oatmeal.  But  late  years  have  loosened  their  prejudices 
very  much;  and  both  in  Canada  and  New  Brunswick 
the  oat  is  now  becoming  an  article  of  extensive  consump- 
tion, even  among  the  inhabitants  of  French  descent. 

The  case  of  Lower  Canada  illustrates,  in  an  exagge- 
rated degree,  what  I  believe  is  the  natural  consequence 
— perhaps  we  may  say  the  natural  sequence  of  events — 
in  countries  where  the  agricultural  practice,  for  a  series 
of  generations,  is  such  as  it  has  hitherto  been  in  North 
America  generally.  The  staple  crops — the  supposed  staff 
and  agricultural  strength  of  the  country — first  fall  off,  and 
then  change  ;  and  with  this  change  the  food  of  the  masses, 
and  the  relations  of  the  country  as  a  whole  with  foreign 
markets,  change  also. 

This  has  already  been  the  case  in  the  longer  settled 
portions  of  the  North  American  continent ;  and  the  same 
consummation  is  preparing  for  the  more  newly  settled 
parts,  unless  a  change  of  system  take  place.  The  new 
wheat-exporting — so  called — granary  districts  and  States 
will  by-and-by  gradually  lessen  in  number  and  extent, 
and  probably  lose  altogether  the  ability  to  export,  unless 
when  unusual  harvests  occur.  And  if  the  population  of 
North  America  continue  to  advance  at  its  present  rapid 
rate — especially  in  the  older  States  of  the  Union — if  large 
mining  and  manufacturing  populations  spring  up,  the 
ability  to  export  wheat  to  Europe  will  lessen  still  more 
rapidly.  This  diminution  may  be  delayed  for  a  time,  by 
the  rapid  settling  of  new  western  States,  which,  from  their 
virgin  soils,  will  draw  easy  returns  of  grain  ;  but  every 
step  westward  adds  to  the  cost  of  transporting  produce 
to  the  Atlantic  border,  while  it  brings  it  nearer  to  that 
far  western  California,  which,  as  some  predict,  will  in  a 
few  years  afford  an  ample  market  for  all  the  corn  and 
cattle  which  the  Western  States  can  send  it. 

In  their  relation  to  English  markets,  therefore,  and  the 
prospects  and  profits  of  the  British  farmer,  my  persuasion 


MANURINQ  NEAR  EDINBURGH. 


365 


is  that,  year  by  year,  our  Transatlantic  cousins  will 
become  less  and  less  able — except  in  extraordinary 
seasons — to  send  large  supplies  of  wheat  to  our  island 
ports ;  and  that,  when  the  virgin  freshness  shall  have  been 
rubbed  off  their  new  lands,  they  will  be  unable,  with  their 
present  knowledge  and  methods^  to  send  wheat  to  the 
British  market  so  cheap  as  the  more  skilful  farmers  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  can  do. 

If  any  one  less  familiar  with  practical  agriculture 
doubts  that  such  must  be  the  final  effect  of  the  exhausting 
system  now  followed  on  all  the  lands  of  North  America, 
1  need  only  inform  him  that  the  celebrated  Lothian 
farmers,  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  Edinburgh, 
who  carry  all  their  crops  off  the  land — as  the  North 
American  farmers  now  do — return,  on  an  average,  ten  tons 
of  well-rotted  manure  every  year  to  every  acre,  while  the 
American  farmer  returns  nothing.*  If  the  Edinburgh 
farmer  finds  this  quantity  necessary  to  keep  his  land  in 
condition,  that  of  the  American  farmer  must  go  out  of 
condition,  and  produce  inferior  crops  in  a  time  which  will 
bear  a  relation  to  the  original  richness  of  the  soil,  and  to 
the  weight  of  crop  it  has  been  in  the  habit  of  producing. 
And  when  this  exhaustion  has  come,  a  more  costly  system 
of  generous  husbandry  must  be  introduced,  if  the  crops 
are  to  be  kept  up ;  and  in  this  more  generous  system,  my 
belief  is,  that  the  British  farmers  will  have  the  victory. 

I  have  spoken,  the  reader  will  bear  in  mind,  of  wheat 
only.  Make  it  an  object  to  the  Central  States  to  send 
their  maize  to  England,  instead  of  converting  it  into  pork 
for  the  packers  of  Cincinnati ;  and,  as  1  have  not  examined 
those  States,  I  do  not  know  what  limit  should  be  placed 
to  the  quantity  they  could  continue  to  send  us  for  many 


*  The  Edinburgh  farmer  sells  all  off— turnips,  potatoes,  straw,  grain, 
and  hay.  But  he  manures  his  turnips  with  thirty,  and  his  potatoes 
with  forty  loads  of  manure,  in  a  rotation  consisting  of  potatoes,  wheat, 
turnips,  barley,  hay,  and  oats. 


366 


IMPORT- DUTY  ON   WHEAT. 


years  to  come.  But  Indian  corn  will  never  become  the 
staple  food  of  our  people ;  nor  is  it  desirable  that  it 
should.  The  importation  of  this  grain  will  not  directly 
interfere,  therefore,  with  the  home  market  for  wheat. 

The  view  I  have  taken  of  this  question  has  a  material 
bearing  upon  other  topics  which  interest  us  at  home,  but 
which  are  at  present  peculiarly  exciting  to  the  people  of 
Upper  Canada.     Take  the  import-duty  of  20  per  cent 
upon  provincial  produce,  when  brought  into  the  United 
States,  for  an  example.     Wheat,  like  all  other  unmanu- 
factured articles,  pays  this  duty.    In  present  circumstances, 
the  impost  on  this  article  does  not  concern  Nova  Scotia, 
New  Brunswick,  or  Lower  Canada.      They  are  wheat- 
importing  countries,  and  are  therefore  indifferent  about 
it.     But  Upper  Canada  produces  fine  wheat,  and  has  still 
a  large  surplus,  which,  as  a  nearer  and  more  convenient 
market,  the  Upper  Canadian  merchants  are  anxious  to 
introduce  into  Rochester  and  Oswego  free  of  duty.      I 
have  in  a  previous  chapter  expressed  my  opinion  that  a 
free  commercial  intercourse,  between  the  opposite  shores 
of  the  St  Lawrence  and  of  the  great  lakes,  is  desirable 
on  general  grounds;  but,  in  order  to  obtain  this  free 
intercourse,  it  does  not    appear  to  me  that  Canada 
ought  to  be  over-anxiously  urgent  with  the  officials  at 
Washington,  or  rashly  to  offer  concessions  which  may 
ultimately  prove  to  be  far  beyond  the  value  of  the  reci- 
procal advantage  they  now  wish  to  obtain. 

In  regard  to  wheat,  there  are  two  or  three  points 
which  are  worthy  of  careful  consideration.  First,  the 
power  of  exporting  wheat  resides  at  present  only  in  the 
newer  and  richer  parts  of  Canada  West.  Supposing 
that  the  result  expected  by  the  wheat-growers  and 
corn-merchants  of  this  part  of  the  colony  were  to  follow 
from  this  wished-for  free  importation  of  grain  into  the 
United  States — namely,  a  considerable  elevation  in  the 
price  of  wheat — would  it  be  for  the  good  of  Canada,  as 


PROSPECTS  OP  UPPER  CANADA. 


367 


a  whole,  that  the  price  of  flour  should,  in  consequence,  be 
raised  to  that  large  tract  of  country,  on  the  Lower  St 
Lawrence,  which  has  ceased  to  raise  enough  for  its  own 
consumption  ? 

Again,  if  the  conclusions  be  well  founded  that  the 
existing  system  of  culture  is  an  exhausting  one,  and  that 
the  wheat-exporting  regions  are,  in  consequence,  retiring 
more  and  more  towards  the  west,  the  same  fate  awaits 
Upper  Canada  which  has  already  overtaken  the  equally 
fertile  State  of  New  York.  The  surplus  of  wheat 
beyond  the  wants  of  the  home  population — the  ability 
to  export,  that  is  to  say — will  gradually  lessen,  and, 
except  in  extraordinary  seasons,  will  finally  cease.  It 
is  true  that  a  larger  proportion — about  80  per  cent,  it 
is  said — of  the  population, of  the  Canadas  is  engaged 
in  agriculture  than  in  the  State  of  New  York,  and  is 
therefore  producing  food;  but  against  this  is  to  be 
placed  the  fact,  that  so  large  a  proportion  of  these  agri- 
culturists are  already  purchasers  of  flour.  The  proba- 
bility, therefore,  is  really  great,  that  Canada,  as  a 
whole,  will  fall  off  in  the  production  of  wheat,  in  com- 
parison with  the  wants  of  its  population,  quite  as 
rapidly  as  the  State  of  New  York  has  done.  * 

It  is  quite  true  that  Upper  Canada  can  boast  of  much 
zeal  for  agricultural  improvement,'  and  many  enlight- 
ened and  anxious  promoters  of  rural  advancement — as 

*  I  have  stated  elsewhere,  in  the  text,  that  I  speak  with  reserve  of 
Upper  Canada,  as  I  have  not  had  the  opportunity  of  visiting  enough  of 
it  to  form  a  satisfactory  opinion.  But  the  view  given  in  the  text  is 
much  confirmed  by  a  parage  in  the  address  of  the  president  of  the 
Agricultural  Association  of  this  province,  delivered  in  September  1850. 
"  The  farms,"  he  says,  "  on  the  whole  line  in  the  old  settled  townships, 
from  Montreal  to  Hamilton,  and  round  the  banks  of  the  lakes,  rivers, 
and  bays,  for  a  space  of  eight  hundred  or  nine  hundred  miles,  with  few 
exceptions,  are  what  is  termed  in  Canada  *  worn  out,'  and  may  be 
purchased  at  from  £3  to  £10  an  acre."  Suppose  that  better  culture 
can  restore  this  land,  yet  wheat  can  never  be  raised  on  it  as  cheaply 
as  at  first. 


_Laa*wliiP 


368 


FLOUR- MILLS  IN  CANADA. 


the  State  of  New  York  also  can — and  I  would  not,  in 
the  slightest  degree,  undervalue  the  results  to  which 
their  labours  and  example  may  lead,  but  would  express 
raj  belief  rather  that  much  good  to  both  countries  will 
grow  out  of  their  exertions.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  a 
thing  to  be  calmly  weighed,  v/hether  the  anticipated 
pecuniary  advantage  of  a  portion  of  Canada  only,  and 
for  a  limited  time,  is  worthy  of  any  large  sacrifice,  on 
the  part  of  the  whole  province,  which  sacrifice  will  be 
permanent  and  irrevocable.  v 

Lastly,  when  speaking  of  the  Rochester  mills  and 
millers,  I  have  alluded  to  the  apparent  anomaly,  that  the 
owners  of  these  mills  can  buy  wheat  at  Toronto,  pay 
the  20  per  cent  on  importing  it  into  Rochester,  convert 
it  into  flour,  send  this  flour  to  New  York,  from  whence 
it  makes  its  way  to  Liverpool,  and,  at  this  latter  mar- 
ket^ can  still  compete  with  the  Canadian  flour  made 
from  the  same  wheat. 

Now,  the  large  flour-mills  of  Montreal  and  of  Upper 
Canada — as  I  wa&  informed  by  an  English  fellow-tra- 
veller on  the  St  Lawrence,  who  professed  to  be  cunning 
in  mills,  and  had  visited  both  for  the  express  purpose  of 
comparing  them  with  one  another — are  much  superior 
to  those  of  Rochester  and  Oswego;  and,  as  another 
competent  authority  assured  me,  they  can  grind  flour 
15  per  cent  cheaper  than  the  mills  of  these  two  places. 
Further,  the  average  freight  to  Liverpool,  down  the  St 
Lawrence,  is  not  so  great  as  the  cost  of  transport  from 
Rochester  to  Liverpool.  If  England,  therefore,  be  the 
market  to  which  nearly  all  the  surplus  flour  of  the 
United  States  which  finds  a  sale  in  Europe  is  first  sent, 
surely  in  that  market  the  Canadian,  coming  directly 
from  his  own  ports,  should  be  able  successfully  to  com- 
pete with  the  merchant  from  Rochester,  who  brings  his 
flour  to  Liverpool  by  way  of  New  York. 

It  may,  indeed,  be  answered,  that  the  constant  sailing 


auld  not,  in 
ts  to  which 
tuld  express 
juntries  will 
ime,  it  is  a 
anticipated 
ia  only,  and 
sacrifice,  on 
rifice  will  be 

sr  mills  and 
laly,  that  the 
Toronto,  pay 
ster,  convert 
from  whence 
a  latter  mar- 
1  flour  made 

nd  of  Upper 
ih  fellow-tra- 
0  be  cunning 
js  purpose  of 
mch  superior 
as  another 
grind  flour 
two  places, 
down  the  St 
ansport  from 
refore,  be  the 
flour  of  the 
is  first  sent, 
ling  directly 
tfully  to  com- 
10  brings  his 

ttstant  sailing 


LARGE  TRADE -PROFITS  IN  CANADA. 


369 


of  the  regular  liners  from  New  York,  often  with  little 
cargo,  aflbrds  frequent  opportunities  of  sending  grain 
and  flour  to  Liverpool  at  a  cost  exceeding  very  little  the 
ordinary  Stevedor's charges;*  but  this  cannot  materially 
affect  the  average  freight  of  the  flour,  as  a  whole,  which 
is  annually  shipped  from  that  port  to  England.  Or  it 
may  be  said  that  the  Kochester  and  Oswego  millers  make 
use  of  the  fine  Toronto  wheat  for  the  purpose  of  mixing 
only,  and  can  therefore  affbrd  to  give  a  higher  price  for 
it  than  the  Canadian  millers,  who  use  unmixed  Canadian 
wheat  for  the  manufacture  of  their  flour.  But  we  can 
scarcely  suppose  that  parcels  bought  for  mixing  would 
seriously  affect  the  wheat  market  of  Canada  as  a  whole  j 
or,  if  so,  that  the  Canadian  millers  cannot  mix  and  use 
up  different  wheats  a^  profitably  as  those  of  Rochester. 

Allowing,  however,  their  full  weight  to  these  and 
similar  considerations,  I  have  been  unable  to  satisfy 
myself  that  if  the  exporters  of  lumber — whose  traffic 
has  of  late  fallen  off,  and  occasioned  discontent — instead 
of  countenancing  or  exciting  political  turmoil,  would 
push  the  direct  home  trade  in  corn  and  flour,  in  place 
of  that  in  timber,  an  equal  commerce  on  the  whole,  and 
equally  profitable  to  the  colony,  might  be  still  main- 
tained with  the  mother  country. 

One  of  the  obstacles  which,  so  far  as  I  have  obtained 
the  means  of  judging,  stands  in  the  way  of  the  energetic 
opening  up  of  a  direct  wheat  and  flour  traffic  with 
Great  Britain,  is  to  be  found  in  the  large  returns  of 
profit  which  the  merchants  look  for,  and  to  which,  I 
suppose,  they  must  hithertQ  have  been  accustomed. 
What  I  have  stated  in  a  previous  page,  as  having  been 
told  me  by  a  Rochester  miller,  that  the  wheat-growers 
and  millers  of  the  United  States  are  unable  to  com- 


For  loading  and  unloading. 


1 


I 


VOL.  I. 


2  A 


370 


PROFITS  ON   LAND   IN   CANADA. 


pete  with  Canada  in  the  foreign  markets,  I  mentioned 
to  an  extensive  miller  whom  I  met  with  in  Upper 
Canada,  on  occasion  of  his  complaining  that  the  Roches- 
ter millers  came  over  and  bought  the  fine  white  wheat 
of  Toronto  at  prices  which  he  could  not  aflford  to  pay. 
On  this  he  remarked,  after  some  hesitation,  that  "  the 
Canadian  would  have  to  learn  to  be  content  with  a 
profit  of  5  per  cent,  when  he  had  hitherto  been  accus- 
tomed to  50!"  Large  profits  and  long  credits  are 
always  the  characteristics  of  an  infantile  and  circum- 
scribed commerce  in  a  new  country  like  this.  Facility 
and  rapidity  of  communication,  by  shortening  credits, 
and  enabling  the  same  capital  to  go  farther,  make  large 
reductions  in  the  rate  of  profit  consistent  with  equal 
gains,  on  the  whole,  to  the  enterprising  and  intelligent 
merchant. 

I 'have  had  other  occasions  to  feel  surprise  at  the 
large  profits  expected  in  Canada  from  the  investment 
of  capital.  It  having  been  mentioned  to  me  that  a 
friend  of  mine  in  Lower  Canada  had  expended  ^15,000 
in  the  purchase  of  a  seignory,  and  that  the  return  was 
£1500  a-year,  or  10  per  cent  on  the  outlay,  I — natu- 
rally enough,  as  we  should  think  in  this  country — 
expressed  my  surprise  at  so  large  a  return  from  invest- 
ments in  land.  An  influential  member  of  the  Canadian 
Legislature,  who  was  present,  on  the  other  hand,  con- 
sidered it  small,  was  surprised  that  similar  investments 
in  England  did  not  yield  so  much,  and  stated  that,  were 
he  to  invest  £15,000  in  land  in  his  own  district  of 
Upper  Canada,  he  should  expect  from  it  a  return  of 
c£'3000  a-year,  or  20  per  cent.  In  what  way,  whether 
by  farming  it  himself,  or  by  letting  it  or  selling  it  to 
others,  he  was  to  realise  this  return,  I  did  not  learn; 
but  the  possibility  of  doing  so,  except  in  some  special 
case,  I  very  much  doubt. 

But  that  some  persons,  at  least,  are  satisfied  of  the 


GROWTH  OP  FLAX. 


371 


'.  mentioned 
I  in  Upper 
the  B-oches- 
vhite  wheat 
brd  to  pay. 
,  that  "  the 
tent  with  a 
been  accus- 
credits  are 
and  circum- 
is.    Facility 
ning  credits, 
,  make  large 
t  with  equal 
d  intelligent 

prise  at  the 
e  investment 
0  me  that  a 
ded  £15,000 
e  return  was 
ay,  I— natu- 
is  country — 
from  invest- 
;he  Canadian 
ir  hand,  con- 
investments 
jd  that,  were 
n  district  of 
a  return  of 
iray,  whether 
selling  it  to 
d  not  learn; 
some  special 

isfied  of  the 


possibility  of  profitably  conducting  a  direct  traffic  with 
England  in  Canadian  flour  was  proved  by  the  fact,  that, 
while  I  was  at  Montreal,  a  vessel  from  the  Ontario, 
containing  seventeen  thousand  bushels  of  the  best 
Toronto  white  wheat,  lay  opposite  Goold's  Mills — one  of 
those  of  which  I  have  spoken  as  being  superior  to  the 
average  of  the  Rochester  and  Oswego  mills  —  to  be 
ground,  on  merchants'  "account,  for  the  Liverpool 
market.  If  properly  cultivated,  this  trade  may,  I  think, 
make  both  the  growers  and  grinders  of  Canadian  wheat 
very  indifferent  as  to  the  20  per  cent  duties  of  the 
States. 

Among  the  articles  of  export  from  Lower  Canada, 
linseed  is  one  which  used  formerly  to  c  oupy  a  not 
unimportant  place,  though  now,  so  far  as  I  can  learn, 
the  export  of  this  grain  to  England  has  almost 
ceased.  The  French  Canadians  used  formerly  to  grow 
flax  extensively  for  home  consumption ;  and  most  of  the 
Lower  Canadian  farmers  still  raise  enough  to  employ 
and  clothe  their  own  families.  The  diminution  in  the 
growth  and  export  of  seed  may  be  owing,  in  some 
degree,  to  the  gradual  substitution  of  cotton  for  linen  in 
articles  for  domestic  use;  partly  to  the  general  exhaustion 
of  the  soil,  of  which  I  have  spoken ;  and  partly  to  the 
growing  taste  for  finer  cloth,  which  will  necessitate  the 
growth  of  a  finer  quality  of  flax.  The  first  and  third  of 
these  causes  are  probably  the  most  influential.  Now,  it 
is  known  to  all  flax-growers  that  hitherto  a  fine  fibre 
has  been  considered  incompatible  with  a  strong,  rank, 
heavy  crop  of  flax,  or  with  the  ripening  of  the  seed. 
Hence  the  taste  for  fine  flax  would  cause  the  sowing  of 
much  seed,  that  the  plant  might  spring  up  thick — the 
selection  of  poor  or  exhausted  land  that  it  might  not 
come  up  rank,  or  grow  tall  and  strong — and  the  pulling 
of  the  plant  before  the  seed  was  ripe.  The  more  these 
practices  for  the  improvement  of  the  fibre  were  followed. 


1!^   I 


'■ 


ih 


\ 


372 


EXPORTATION  OP  LINSEED. 


the  less  would  be  the  quantity  of  linseed  brought  to 
market. 

It  is  one  of  those  advances  which  the  arts  owe  to 
scientific  research,  and  deserves  the  consideration  of 
those  who  affect  to  despise,  or  altogether  deny,  the  use  of 
science  to  agriculture,  that  the  new  method  (Schenck's) 
of  steeping  flax  in  hot  water  promises  to  render  all  these 
precautions  unnecessary,  to  extract  as  fine  a  fibre  from  the 
rank  coarse  ripe  flax-plant,  as  from  the  slender  unripe 
plant  hitherto  privileged  alone  to  yield  the  finer  thread. 
This  method  of  steeping  is  certain  and  constant  in  its 
results,  and  is  performed  in  as  few  days  as  the  old 
method  required  of  weeks. 

The  general  introduction  of  this  method  of  manu- 
facturing the  plant  will  simplify  the  farmer's  treatment 
of  the  crop,  will  enable  him  to  cultivate  flax  as  he  does 
any'  other  plant  he  grows,  to  reap  a  profit  from  it  in 
proportion  to  its  total  weight,  and,  as  in  other  crops,  to 
ripen  his  seed  either  for  home  use  or  for  exportation.  It 
may  regenerate  the  flax -husbandry  in  Canada,  and 
revive,  without  exhausting  the  land,  the  ancient  trade  in 
the  seed  as  an  article  of  export.* 

I  have  said  that  the  average  freights  from  the 
Canadian  ports,  direct  to  Liverpool  and  other  ports  in 
Great  Britain,  cannot  be  greater  than  the  cost  of 
transmitting  produce  from  the  shores  of  Lake  Ontario, 
through  the  port  of  New  York.  This  direct  freight 
ought  in  reality  to  be  less  ;  and  in  a  few  years  it  will 
almost  certainly  become  so.  This  statement  naturally 
leads  me  to  make  a  few  remarks  on  the  navigation  of 
the  St  Lawrence,  its  importance  to  Canadian  interests, 
and  the  influence  it  is  destined  hereafter  to  exercise  on 
the  general  revenues  of  the  Canadas. 

*  Canadian  seed  ought  to  be  as  good  as  Riga  flax  seed,  of  which 
6000  barrels  have  been  imported  into  Newry,  and  15,000  into  Belfast, 
during  the  present  season. 


brought  to 

arts  owe  to 
ideration  of 
y,  the  use  of 
(Schenck's) 
ider  all  these 
ibre  from  the 
3nder  unripe 
finer  thread, 
jnstant  in  its 
s  as  the  old 

od  of  manu- 
;r's  treatment 
IX  as  he  does 
fit  from  it  in 
ther  crops,  to 
portation.  It 
Canada,  and 
Lcient  trade  in 

its  from  the 
other  ports  in 

the  cost  of 
Lake  Ontario, 
direct  freight 

years  it  will 
lent  naturally 
navigation  of 
dian  interests, 
exercise  on 


;o 


seed,  of  which 
5,000  into  Belfast, 


THE  ERIE  CANAL. 


373 


The  natural  outlet  of  the  vast  region  of  North 
America,  which  is  drained  by  the  great  lakes  and  their 
tributary  streams,  is,  as  I  have  already  remarked,  by  the 
river  St  Lawrence.  This  was  early  recognised;  but 
the  natural  obstructions  which  existed  in  the  channel  of 
this  river,  have,  with  other  obstacles,  hitherto  prevented 
it  from  being  so  easily  and  generally  available  as  it  is 
now  likely  to  become. 

In-  the  first  place,  the  rapids  and  falls  of  Niagara 
prevented  the  passage  of  vessels  between  the  lakes  Erie 
and  Ontario.  Thus,  the  Lower  St  Lawrence  was  inac- 
cessible to  the  rapidly-settling  western  portions  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  Ohio.  The  idea  of  a  canal  from  Lake  Erie 
to  the  Hudson,  through  the  low  country  of  western  New 
York,  was  therefore  suggested,  and  was  finally  entertained 
by  the  New  York  State  Legislature.  The  Erie  Canal  was 
the  result ;  and  up  to  nearly  the  present  time  this  canal 
has  formed  the  high-road  between  the  upper  lakes  and 
the  Atlantic,  and  has  been  a  source  of  great  wealth,  and 
the  cause  of  a  very  rapid  prosperity,  not  only  to  the  city, 
but  to  the  whole  State  of  New  York.  As  the  western 
country  was  cleared,  and  its  population  increased,  the 
traffic  along  this  canal  augmented  in  a  degree  which  the 
most  sanguine  had  never  contemplated,  and  extra- 
ordinary exertions  have  been  made,  from  time  to  time, 
to  facilitate  the  traffic,  and  to  hasten  the  passage  of  the 
vessels  with  which  it  is  crowded.  The  degree  of  expert- 
ness  to  which  the  working  of  this  canal  has  been  brought 
may  be  judged  of  from  the  fact,  that,  in  the  single 
month  of  October  1847,  6930  lockages  were  executed 
above  Schenectady,  which  gives  less  than  6^  minutes 
for  each  lockage,  Sundays  included. 

But  every  year  causes  new  increase  of  traffic,  and  new 
delay  in  the  transmission  of  produce  and  merchandise, 
and  larger  quantities  are,  in  consequence,  detained  over 
winter,  when  the  frost  has  put  a  stop  to  the  navigation 


, 


i 


374 


CANADIAN  canals: 


of  the  canal.  The  great  traffic,  and  already  immense 
population  of  the  Western  States,  and  the  mineral  and 
other  produce  of  the  upper  lakes,  now  demand  other 
ways  of  access  to  the  Atlantic  and  to  Europe. 

Meanwhile  the  Canadian  authorities,  those  of  Upper 
Canada  especially,  have  not  been  idle.  Indeed,  I  believe 
they  have  done  more  to  promote  internal  water-commu- 
nication than  any  State  of  the  Union — I  may  safely  say, 
than  any  country  in  Europe — considering  the  infancy 
,of  their  country,  the  extent  to  which  its  material 
resources  have  been  developed,  and  the  actual  amount 
of  its  revenue  and  population. 

First,  the  Welland  Canal  has  been  constructed,  by 
which  a  direct  communication  for  large  vessels  is 
established  between  the  lakes  Erie  and  Ontario.  Thus 
the  borders  of  the  upper  lakes  were  connected  by  a 
single  freightage  with  the  ports  of  western  New  York 
and  with  those  of  Upper  Canada,  along  the  borders  of 
the  Ontario,  and  down  the  St  Lawrence,  as  far  as 
Prescott  on  the  Canadian,  and  Ogdensburg  on  the 
New  York  side,  below  which  places  the  first  rapids  on 
that  river  occur.  Upon  this  great  work  about 
.£'1,400,000  currency  have  been  expended  ;  and,  though 
still  incomplete,  it  is  already  yielding  a  revenue  of 
0^30,000  a-year. 

Next,  the  numerous  rapids  on  the  river,  between 
Prescott  and  Montreal,  have  been  flanked  by  canals, 
shorter  or  longer  according  to  circumstances,  by  which 
the  transit  for  large  and  loaded  vessels,  either  upwards 
or  downwards,  has  been  rendered  easy  and  secure. 

Of  these  canals,  the  most  important  are : — 


Miles. 

Locks. 

Cost. 

Williamsbury,  four  )  ^ 
short  canals,  .        j 

6 

£245,000 

Cornwall,          .         11^ 

7 

75,000 

Beauharnais,    .         24 

9 

310,000 

Lachine,           .          9 

... 

350,000 

h... 


MONEY   EXPENDED  ON  THEM. 


375 


\y  immense 
mineral  and 
mand  other 

■ 

36  of  Upper 
jd,  I  believe 
iter-commu- 
Y  safely  say, 
the  infancy 
its  material 
tual  amount 

structed,  by 
5  vessels  is 
ario.  Thus 
aected  by  a 
1  New  York 
e  borders  of 
,  as  far  as 
irg  on  the 
st  rapids  on 
wrork  about 
and,  though 
revenue  of 


er,  between 
by  canals, 
:es,  by  which 
her  upwards 
secure. 


Cost. 
J45,000 

75,000 
H0,000 
50,000 


B^low  Montreal,  the  works  in  Lake  St  Peter  cost 
^^75,000,  and  the  harbour  of  Montreal  itself  jE  131, 000. 
I  do  not  include,  of  course,  as  executed  by  the  province 
the  Eideau  Canal,  between  the  foot  of  Lake  Erie  and 
the  upper  waters  of  the  Ottawa,  as  this  was  executed 
by  the  Home  Government.  It  is  a  hundred  and  thirty 
miles  in  length,  has  forty-seven  locks,  and  cost  £800,000. 
Though  intended  chiefly  as  a  military  work,  it  will 
prove  of  immense  benefit  to  the  future  development  of 
the  natural  resources  of  the  more  northerly  parts  of 
Upper  Canada  in  the  great  basin  of  the  Ottawa. 

Altogether,  on  the  execution  of  canals  and  river- 
improvements  necessary  to  the  direct  navigation  of  the 
St  Lawrence  from  the  upper  lakes  to  the  Atlantic, 
upwards  of  £3,000,000  currency,  or  twelve  millions  of 
dollars,  have  been  expended  by  the  Legislatures  of 
Upper  and  Lower  Canada.  This  sum  is  not  only  large 
absolutely  or  in  itself,  but  it  is  especially  so,  compared 
with  the  amount  of  revenue  hitherto  at  the  disposal  of 
the  provincial  Legislature  of  the  Canadas.  When  we 
consider,  also,  that  the  whole  canal  debt  of  the  State  of 
New  York  is  under  seventeen  millions  of  dollars,  while 
the  Canadas  have  burdened  themselves  with  a  debt  of 
twelve  millions,  we  shall  be  willing  to  allow  that  the 
amount  of  energy  displayed  by  the  people  north  of 
Lake  Ontario  and  of  the  Thousand  Isles  is  not  less  than 
has  been  manifested  even  in  the  State  of  New  York, 
nor  their  faith  less  in  the  future  growth  and  greatness 
of  their  rising  country. 

The  result  of  all  these  improvements  has  been,  that 
more  and  more  of  the  direct  European  traffic  with  the 
great  lakes  has  been  making  its  way  every  year  down 
the  St  Lawrence,  instead  of  by  the  Erie  Canal — even 
while  that  canal  has  been  still  able  to  overtake  the 
whole  of  the  traffic.  But  now  that  it  has  become 
evident  that  this  canal,  however  it  may  be  enlarged. 


i  9 


376 


ADVANTAGES  OP  THE  ST  LAWRENCE 


and  however  energetically  managed,  will  soon  be  wholly 
inadequate  to  the  demands  of  the  western  trade,  the 
value  of  the  St  Lawrence,  and  the  certainty  of  its  being 
very  extensively  used,  becomes  every  day  more  clear. 

Other  considerations  also  are  likely  to  hasten  this 
result. 

For  laden  vessels  coming  down  Lake  Erie  with 
cargoes  for  Europe,  the  two  points  of  destination  are 
either  Buffalo,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Erie  Canal,  on  the 
New  York  side— or  Port  Maitland,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Welland  Canal,  on  the  Canadian  side.  If  the  vessel 
make  for  Buffalo,  its  cargo  must  be  transhipped,  sent 
364  miles  by  canal,  and  down  the  Hudson  to  New 
York,  and  be  again  transhipped  at  least  once  before  it 
can  be  despatched  to  Europe.  If  it  enter  Port  Mait- 
land, it  passes  the  canals  without  breaking  bulk,  and 
descends  to  Quebec  in  four  days.  Thence  the  same 
vessel  may  proceed  direct  to  Europe,  or  the  cargo  may 
be  transhipped,  and  with  a  fair  wind  may  pass  the 
banks  of  Newfoundland  before  it  could  reach  New  York 
by  the  way  of  the  Erie  Canal.  Thus,  independent  of 
possible  detention  on  this  canal,  it  appears  that  time  is 
saved  by  the  St  Lawrence  route ;  and  every  merchant 
knows  the  value  of  this  element  in  commercial 
affairs. 

Again,  the  cost  of  transport  from  Albany  to  Buffalo 
is  7t  dollars  per  ton,  while  from  Montreal  to  Port 
Maitland,  ascending  the  river,  it  is  only  three  dollars  a 
ton — and  the  difference  is  greater  in  descending  the 
river ;  so  that  the  St  Lawrence  is  also  a  cheaper  route 
than  that  by  Lake  Erie.  A  fellow-passenger  of  mine 
across  the  Atlantic  informed  me  that,  in  bringing  rail- 
road iron  from  Liverpool  to  Cleveland  in  Ohio,  (on 
Lake  Erie,)  he  found  that,  independent  of  speed,  the 
route  of  the  St  Lawrence  was  10s.  a  ton  cheaper  than 
any  other  he  could  take. 


* 


r^fT» 


IE 

1  be  wholly 
trade,   the 
of  its  being 
ore  clear, 
hasten  this 

Erie  with 
lination  are 
nal,  on  the 
louth  of  the 
f  the  vessel 
lipped,  sent 
on  to  New 
ce  before  it 

Port  Mait- 
^  bulk,  and 
ce  the  same 
!  cargo  may 
ay  pass  the 
i  New  York 
ependent  of 
that  time  is 
:y  merchant 

commercial 

y  to  Buffalo 
jal  to  Port 
•ee  dollars  'a 
sending  the 
leaper  route 
erer  of  mine 
in  gin  g  rail- 
Ohio,  (on 
f  speed,  the 
heaper  than 


COMPARED  WITH  THE  ERIE  CANALS. 


377 


As  less  cost  both  in  time  and  money,  therefore,  attend 
this  route,  it  appears  certain  that  the  traffic  will  be 
increased  upon  it,  not  only  by  the  surplus  which  the 
Erie  Canal  cannot  convey,  but  by  the  diversion  from 
that  canal  of  a  portion — perhaps  a  large  portion — of 
the  traffic  it  has  hitherto  monopolised.  In  other  words, 
whatever  the  amount  of  traffic  may  be,  the  river  St 
Lawrence  will  henceforth  be  able  to  compete  success- 
fully with  the  Erie  Canal. 

But  this  greater  cheapness  of  transport,  and  the 
facility  of  establishing  direct  communication,  and  with- 
out transhipment,  between  Cleveland,  Detroit,  Chicago, 
&c.,and  Liverpool,  will  draw  also  into  this  eastern  channel 
a  large  traffic  which  never  sought  Lake  Erie,  but  made 
its  long  and  tedious  way  down  the  Ohio  and  the  Missis- 
sippi. The  wheat  and  other  produce  of  the  valley  of 
the  Ohio,  which  was  intended  for  the  European  markets, 
has  hitherto,  for  the  most  part,  descended  those  rivers, 
and,  after  a  voyage  of  some  thousands  of  miles,  has 
reached  New  Orleans,  whence  it  was  reshipped  to  its 
European  destination.  But  this  long  water-carriage,  in 
the  hot  and  humid  climate  of  the  regions  through  which 
these  rivers  flow,  is  found  to  aff'ect  the  quality  of  the 
wheat ;  so  that  it  rarely  reaches  Europe  in  so  good  a 
condition,  or  realises  so  high  a  price^  as  similar  wheat 
does  which  has  been  conveyed  through  the  Eastern 
States  to  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic. 

It  is  easy  now,  however,  to  transport  by  railway  to 
the  harbour  of  Cleveland  (on  Lake  Erie)  the  produce 
of  the  Ohio  Valley ;  and  as  soon  as  it  is  generally 
known  that  the  passage  to  Europe  from  that  port,  by 
way  of  the  St  Lawrence,  is  not  only  much  shorter  in 
time,  but  is  also  cheaper  in  money-cost,  and  brings  the 
grain  to  market  in  better  condition,  it  is  clear  that  a 
portion,  at  least,  of  the  European  commerce  with  the 
Ohio  Valley  will  be  diverted  into  this  channel. 


11 


378 


PROSPECTS  OF  CANADIAN   NAVIGATION. 


I  odIj  allude  to  another  circumBtance  and  possible 
event  which  may  dispose  the  free  North-western  States 
to  cultivate  this  eastern  route  of  the  St  Lawrence.  At 
present,  their  main  communication  with  the  European 
markets  is  by  the  Mississippi,  the  mouth  and  keys  of 
which  are  in  the  hands  of  the  slave-owners  of  the  south. 
Should  a  crisis  between  the  free  and  slave  States  arise, 
this  channel  of  intercourse  might  be  shut  up,  and  the 
prosperity  of  the  States  on  the  upper  river  and  its  tribu- 
taries thus  greatly  arrested.  But  if,  in  the  meanwhile, 
this  channel  by  the  St  Lawrence  be  cultivated,  any 
contingency  of  that  kind  would  fall  less  heavily  upon 
the  States  affected  by  it,  and  the  dread  of  its  occur- 
rence would  seriously  influence  neither  their  policy  nor 
their  prospects. 

To  this  view  of  the  St  Lawrence  navigation,  as 
bearing  upon  their  own  future  condition  and  indepen- 
dence, both  political  and  commercial,  the  free  North- 
western States  cannot  be  indiflferent,  and  they  will, 
therefore,  be  anxious,  I  think,  both  to  promote  it 
generally,  and  to  secure  its  advantages  to  themselves  as 
cheaply,  and  at  as  early  a  period,  as  possible. 

Altogether,  therefore,  the  prospects  of  the  Canadian 
canals,  and  the  general  St  Lawrence  navigation,  are 
exceedingly  encouraging ;  and  though,  as  I  have  said, 
I  would  not  advocate,  in  these  times,  the  creation  of 
exclusive  advantages  on  either  side  of  the  river  and 
lakes,  yet  those  which  Canada  now  possesses  ought  not, 
with  these  bright  prospects,  to  be  lightly  resigned  to 
the  United  States,  or  without  receiving  a  satisfactory 
equivalent. 

But  the  Lower  St  Lawrence  presents  difficulties  to 
navigation  not  yet  alluded  to,  and  which  demand,  at  the 
hands  of  the  Canadian  Legislature,  still  further  exertions, 
with  a  view  to  its  improvement,  and  to  the  more 
effectually   securing    of    the    advantages    which     the 


CHANNEL  OF  THE  ST  LAWRENCE. 


379 


commerce  of  the  river  is  destined  to  confer  upon  the 
province. 

The  geological  structure  of  Lower  Canada,  to  which 
I  have  already  in  general  terms  alluded,  affects  the 
navigable  character  of  the  St  Lawrence  below  Quebec. 
I  have  described  the  strike  of  the  beds  on  the  south  side 
of  the  river  as  running  nearly  parallel  with  the  course 
of  the  river  from  Quebec  to  the  district  of  Gasp^,  and 
the  inland  country  as  consisting  of  parallel  ridges  of 
more  or  less  hard  rock,  with  intervening  valleys  of 
varying  breadth  and  depth.  The  bed  of  the  St  Law- 
rence is  of  a  similar  character.  The  channel  runs  along 
the  strike  of  the  upturned  metamorphic  beds,  and  con- 
sists of  alternate  ridges  and  hollows,  as  the  dry  land 
does.  Where  the  ridges  are  elevated  they  form  islands, 
rocks,  and  longitudinal  reefs  ;  while  the  valleys  form  the 
channels  along  which  vessels  proceed. 

But  from  this  description  it  will  be  understood  that 
the  deep  water-channels,  formed  by  the  washing  away  of 
the  softer  parts  or  beds  of  rocks,  must,  such  as  these  are, 
be  irregular  in  width  and  direction.  Where  the  river 
is  broad,  there  may  be  several  channels  or  parallel  longi- 
tudinal valleys,  any  one  or  all  of  which  may  be  inter- 
rupted by  narrow  and  shallow  reefs,  which  will  render 
navigation  intricate,  difficult,  and — when  the  tides  run 
with  great  velocity — dangerous. 

Such  is  really  the  case  in  the  St  Lawrence.  About 
five  miles  below  Quebec,  the  Isle  d'Orleans  divides  the 
river  into  the  north  and  south  chann'els,  and  beyond  this 
island,  which  has  a  length  of  twenty  miles,  it  is  divided 
into  three  irregular — the  north,  middle,  and  south — 
channels,  by  parallel  ridges,  the  highest  points  of  which 
form  islands,  and  the  lower,  rocky  or  sandy  reefs,  visible 
only  at  low-water.  Shoals  also,  at  various  points,  stretch 
out  from  the  south  shore,  which  narrow  and  give  still 
more  intricacy  to  these  channels.     Hence,  at  a  place 


380 


LIGHTHOUSES  AND  PROVISION -DEPOTS. 


called  the  Traverse  or  Narrows,  about  fifty-five  miles 
below  Quebec,  though  the  river  is  there  thirteen  miles 
wide,  the  cliannel  usually  selected  by  pilots  is  only  1800 
yards  in  width,  and,  to  add  to  the  difficulty,  the  ebb-tide 
runs  through  it  at  the  rate  of  seven,  and  the  Hood  of  five 
or  six  miles  an  hour,  and  there  is  no  anchorage. 

From  such  circumstances  as  this  arises  the  risk  usually 
understood  to  attend  the  navigation  of  the  St  Lawrence, 
and  which  is  one  cause  of  the  higher  rates  of  insurance 
usually  demanded  for  vessels  which  sail  to  or  from  this 
river. 

The  mouth  of  the  river  also  has  its  dangers ;  and 
among  the  consequences  of  these,  the  most  distressing 
are  the  shipwrecks  which  occasionally  occur,  after  the 
winter  season  has  set  in,  and  when  unhappy  crews, 
having  saved  their  lives  from  the  sea,  are  thrown  upon 
frozen  shores  or  islands,  far  from  human  sympathy,  or 
necessary  supplies  of  food,  fuel,  or  clothing. 

To  obviate  the  dangers  arising  from  the  intricacy  of 
the  navigation,  lighthouses  have  already  been  erected  at 
various  points ;  but  the  number  of  these  is  still  insuffi- 
cient ;  and  a  people  who  have  expended  the  large  sums 
I  have  mentioned  in  improving  the  upper  parts  of  the 
river  cannot  hesitate — now  that  their  sacrifices  are  begin- 
ning to  be  appreciated,  and  are  likely  to  meet  with  their 
reward — to  organise  and  maintain  a  sufficiently  extensive 
lighthouse  department,  to  give  confidence  and  security 
to  the  navigator. 

It  is  not  more  on  behalf  of  humanity,  than  as  a  matter 
of  wise  economy,  that  I  would  suggest  the  establishment 
of  fixed  dep6ts  of  provisions,  and  other  stores,  in  charge 
of  the  necessary  number  of  people,  at  different  points  on 
the  islands  or  coasts  about  the  mouth  of  the  St  Lawrence, 
where  shipwrecks  most  frequently  occur — that  those 
appalling  evils  ma;  be  averted,  which  to  us,  who  live  in 
more  genial  climes,  appear  among  the  most  fearful  to 


CHAMBLY  CANAL  AND  LAKE  CHAMPLArK. 


381 


awrence. 


which  castaway  manners  can  be  subjected.  The 
expense  of  such  winter  depdts  would  be  only  small, 
while  they  would  create  in  the  breasts  oi  i^amcn  such 
a  feeling  of  confidence  as  would  often  prevent  the 
disasters,  the  consequences  of  which  they  are  desiguod 
to  relieve.  • 

No  legislative  interference,  of  course,  can  ward  off 
icebergs  from  the  banks  of  Newfoundland,  or  make  the 
seas  more  safe  in  the  bay  of  the  St  Lawrence,  in  early 
spring,  and  when  winter  approaches ;  but  greater  skill 
and  care  in  the  masters  of  vessels  may  lessen  the  casual- 
ties arising  from  these  sources.  The  proposed  examina- 
tion of  master  mariners,  the  advantages  of  which  have 
already  been  frequently  discussed  in  the  Home  Parlia- 
ment, will  go  some  way  towards  securing  this  greater 
care  and  skill. 

There  is  still  one  branch  of  the  internal  navigation  of 
Canada  which  is  likely  to  tend  not  only  to  the  extension 
of  the  traffic  on  the  St  Lawrence,  but  to  the  improve- 
ment also  of  the  general  commerce  of  the  province. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  the  river  Richelieu  as  flow- 
ing from  Lake  Champlain,  in  a  northerly  direction, 
through  the  once  fertile  flat  country  in  which  Chambly, 
St  Hilaire,  and  other  villages  stand,  and  out  of  which 
rises  Beloeil,  and  the  other  isolated  mountains,  which  add 
80  much  to  the  picturesque  character  of  the  district. 
This  river  falls  into  the  St  Lawrence  at  Sorel,  forty-five 
miles  below  Montreal.  From  this  point  upwards  to 
Lake  Champlain,  the  Richelieu  has  been  made  navigable 
by  the  lock  or  dam  of  St  Ours,  and  the  canal  of  Cham- 
bly, extending  a  distance  of  eleven  and  a  half  miles  from 
the  town  of  Chambly  to  St  John,  between  which  places 
considerable  interruptions  occur  in  the  bed  of  the  river. 
This  canal  cost  £120,000;  and  though  it  has  hitherto 
returned  comparatively  little  revenue,  the  state  of  the 
trade  on  the  Erie  Canal  is  likely  very  soon  to  give  it  an 


"w,  C'-.j-t-i'  '!?^9'Wg!ffJa*g!'?y— * 


882: 


FUTURE  INFLUENCE  OF  CANADA. 


important  part  of  the  traffic  between  the  western  country 
and  New  York. 

I.  have  already  adverted  to  the  excessive  crowding  of 
the  Erie  Canal,  and  the  delays  to  which  merchandise  is 
occasionally  in  consequence  subjected.  But  to  descend 
to  Montreal  and  Sorel  is  easy,  and  can  be  done  without 
transhipment;  and,  in  consequence  of  this  and  other 
advantages,  it  has  been  found  that  goods  can  by  this 
route — down  the  St  Lawrence,  then  up  the  Richelieu  to 
Lake  Champlain,  and  thence  by  canal  to  the  river 
Hudson — be  carried  to  New  York  as  cheaply,  and  with 
more  certainty  as  to  time,  than  by  the  hitherto  exclusive 
line  of  the  Erie  Canal.  It  may,  therefore,  be  confidently 
predicted,  that  a  portion  of  the  internal  traffic  of  the 
States  will  hereafter  pass  by  the  river  Eichelieu,  and 
enrich  and  increase  the  value  of  land  in  the  district 
thro'ugh  which  it  passes. 

A  shorter  ship-canal  has  also  been  projected  direct 
from  Caughnawaga — opposite  to  Montreal,  but  above 
the  rapids — direct  to  Lake  Champlain.  Should  this  be 
executed,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  much  of  the  traffic 
between  the  western  regions  and  the  Atlantic  borders 
would  pass,  without  changing  bottoms,  in  this  direction — 
greatly  adding,  of  course,  to  the  income  of  the  provincial 
canals,  and  to  the  commercial  establishments  and  inter- 
course along  the  river. 

On  the  whole,  therefore,  it  appears  certain  that  the 
river  St  Lawrence  is  destined  ere  long  to  become  a  most 
important  medium  of  intercourse  between  the  various 
sections  of  the  New  World,  as  well  as  between  the  Old 
World  and  the  New,  and  to  give  to  the  province  of 
Canada  a  far  more  extensive  and  commanding  influence 
over  the  commercial  operations  of  North  America  than 
any  State  east  of  Louisiana  can  ever  aspire  to.* 

*  I  am  happy  to  leara  that,  so  far  as  the  present  year  1850  is  concerned, 
the  anticipations  of  the  text  have  been  fully  confirmed.     The  revenue 


ra  country 

owding  of 
chandise  is 
to  descend 
ne  without 
and  other 
san  by  this 
uichelieu  to 
the  river 
,  and  with 
0  exclusive 
confidently 
iffic  of  the 
lelieu,  and 
the  district 


FUTURE  INFLUENCE  OP  CANADA. 


383 


I  do  not  in  this  place  introduce  any  remarks  in  rela- 
tion to  the  railroad  communications  with  the  Atlantic 
which  are  now  projected  or  in  progress,  as  the  observa- 
tions I  subsequently  made  in  New  Brunswick  will  natu- 
rally suggest  some  considerations  in  connection  with  this 
important  means  of  colonial  development. 

from  public  works,  during  the  first  ton  months  of  1849,  was  £64,601, 
while,  during  the  same  ten  months  of  1850,  it  has  been  £76,672,  an 
increase  of  nearly  one-fifth.  This,  with  the  other  abundant  symptoms 
of  prosperity  experienced  in  the  colony  during  the  present  year,  will,  I 
hope,  hush  the  cry  of  discontent  and  disloyalty  for  some  time  to  come. 


cted  direct 
but  above 
^uld  this  be 
■  the  traffic 
tic  borders 
direction — 
provincial 
and  inter- 
in  that  the 
3me  a  most 
he  various 
en  the  Old 
)rovince  of 
g  influence 
nerica  than 

0.* 

)  is  concerned, 
The  revenue 


\ 


CHAPTER    XIV. 


Leave  Mitis  for  the  Restigouche. — Nature  of  the  road  through  the 
forest. — Clearings  and  accommodation  by  the  way. — Mountainous 
character  of  the  country. — Frazer's. — Elevated  table-land. — Great 
Metapediac  Lake. — Rich  flat  land  around  it. — Brechut's. — Little 
Metapediae  Lake. — John  Low's.— Rough  road. — Dark  night. — Burned 
forcst'j. — Burned  bridges. — Cause  of  the  burnings. — Their  effect  on 
the  landscape  and  on  the  soil. — Noble's. — Evans's  Hollow. — Solitary 
life  in  the  forest. — Hardwood  ridges. — First  green  fields  and  clear- 
ings.— Home  thoughts  and  associations. — Scottish  settlers  twelve 
hundred  feet  above  the  sea. — How  such  spots  Uecome  known  at 
home. — Beautiful  scenery. — Fine  land  and  farms. — Dixon's. — Abun- 
dant wheat  a  thousand  feet  above  the  sea. — Yankee  phrenologists, 
soapmakers,  and  other  adventurers ;  their  luck  in  the  provinces. — 
Campbelton. — Mr  Ferguson  of  AthoU  House. — Changes  in  a  new 
country  during  a  single  lifetime. — River  Restigouche. — Good  land  on 
either  side. — Excursion  up  the  river.— Flat  lands. — Views  on  the 
river. — Scottish  settlers  from  Arran. — General  prosperity  of  these 
settlers. — Attachment  to  home  recollections. — Goatfell. — Ilfracombe 
and  the  Causeyside.  —  Good  land  on  the  Upper  Restigouche.  — 
Alleged  home  ignorance  of  provincial  geography.  —  Similar  real 
ignorance  in  the  colonies. — Indian  settlement  opposite  Campbelton. 
— Progress  of  the  Indians  in  fanning. — Their  winter  employments. — 
Want  of  a  school. — Sugar-loaf  Mountain,  and  the  view  from  it. — 
Geological  reason  for  the  quality  of  the  land. — Good  land  on  the 
Canadian  side,  in  the  county  of  Bonaventure. — Agricultural  societies 
in  this  remote  region. — Encouragement  given  to  such  societies  by 
the  Canadian  Legislature. — Agricultural  show  on  the  Restigouche. — 
Prosperity  of  the  lumber  trade  on  this  river. — Historical  recollections 
of  the  river  and  bay.— Old  French  settlements. — Town  of  Dalhousie. 
— Increase  in  the  growth  of  wheat  in  this  district. — High  price  of 
Canadian  flour. — Fossiliferous  imestone  at  Dalhousie. — Settlers  on 
the  Eel  River.— Tlieir  prospe.ity. — Great  success  of  the  potato 
culture. — Supposed  superiority  of  the  lumberer  over  the  farmer. — 
Greater  value  of  the  resident  farmer  to  the  province. — Effects  of  a 


nOAD  FROM   MITIS  TO  CAMPBELTON. 


385 


I  through  the 
— Mo\mtainou8 
le-land.— Great 
jchut's.— Little 
night.— Burned 
rheir  effect  oa 
)llow.— Solitary 
ields  and  clear- 
settlers  twelve 
come  known  at 
Dixon's.— Abun- 
e  phrenologists, 
he  provinces. — 
mges  in  a  new 
—Good  land  on 
—Views  on  the 
jperity  of  these 
fell.— llfracombe 
Restigouche.  — 
.  —  Similar  real 
lite  Campbelton. 
employments.— 
view  from  it. — 
,od  land  on  the 
lultural  societies 
luch  societies  by 
Restigouche.— 
■ical  recollections 
n  of  Dalhousie. 
, — High  price  of 
|sie.— Settlers  ou 
of  the    potato 
|er  the  farmer.— 
le.— Effects  of  a 


failing  lumber-trade  on  the  permanent  welfare  of  the  country.  — 
Illustration  of  certain  social  and  domestic  differences  between  the 
United  States  and  the  colonies. 

October  6.— Having  yesterday  arranged  with  a  habitant, 

bearing  the  iUustrious  name  of  Dumas,  to  convey  me 

across  the  peninsula  of  Gasp^  for  £5  currency,  I  rose 

from  a  short  sleep  at  one  o'clock  this  morning,  and, 

after  a  drive  of  three  miles  inland  from  Mitis — for  a 

considerable  part  of  the  way  over  a  bog,  upon  a  fearful 

corduroy  road — reached  the  house  of  Dumas.     Having 

transferred  myself  and  luggage  into  the  waggon  I  was 

to  occupy  for   the  next  two  days,,  we  ascended  a  hill 

which   separated  us  from   all  further  communication, 

even  by  sight,  with  the  river  St  Lawrence,  and  in  about 

half-an-hour  had  entered  the  forest.     Under  the  shadow 

of  perpetual  trees  we  continued,  from  this  point,  for  a 

distance  of  eighty  miles,  emerging  only  to  come  within 

sight  of  the  river  Restigouche. 

This  road  between  the  two  rivers  is  a  very  rude  and 

difficult  one.     It  is  barely  blocked  out  of  sufficient  width 

to  allow  a  waggon  with  one  horse  to  pass.     The  trees 

are  cut  down  and  hauled  off,  boulder-stones  and  small 

inequalities  removed,  and  bridges  built  where  they  are 

absolutely  necessary.     Only  the  horses  of  the.  country, 

which   all  their  lives  have   been  trained  to  it,  could 

conduct  even  light  waggons  across  the  numerous  steep 

hills  over  which  the  road  passes.     I  had  been  told  in 

New    Brunswick  that  the    road    was    impassable  for 

carriages,  and  that  my  portmanteau  would  have  to  be 

carried,  while  I  walked  on  foot  myself  a  considerable 

part  of  the  way  ;  and  I  did  think  that  my  luggage,  my 

conductor,  and  myself  were  a  very  heavy  load  for  the 

little  Canadian  horse,  till  I  afterwards  saw  other  horses 

compelled  to  drag  at  least  twice  the  load   along    the 

same  road. 

VOL.    I.  2  b 


386 


STATIONS  ON  THE  KEMPT  ROAD. 


The  traverse  from  Mitis  to  Campbelton  is  usually 
accomplished,  in  these  light  waggons,  in  three  days. 
By  starting  at  the  early  hour  of  one  in  the  morning,  I 
was  enabled  to  perform  the  entire  journey  by  the 
evening  of  the  second  day,  and  thus  to  avoid  the 
disagreeables  of  two  ensuing  nights  of  wilderness 
accommodation. 

The  houses  met  with  in  the  forest  are  very  few,  and 
their  relative  distances  nearly  as  follows : — 

To  Frazer's,   a  log-hut  attached  to  a  small  clear- 
ance in  the  wood,  is  from  Mitis  about  seventeen 
miles. 
To  Brechut's — a  house  and  clearing  on  the  Metapediac 
Lake.     In  this  house  there  is  one  inferior  bed  for 
strangers.     When  I  passed,  it  was  inhabited  by 
,  three   men,  without   any  female.      A   change  of 
horses  can  sometimes  be  got  here,  but  it  is  not  to 
be  depended  on,  and  could  not  have  been  got  at 
the  time  of  my  visit.     Nine  miles. 
To  John  Low''s— a  log-hut  and  small  clearing  on  the 
Little  Metapediac  Lake,  inhabited  by  John  Low 
and  his  wife — eighteen  miles. 
This  man  was  about  to  remove  to  a  new  clearance 
he  was  making  five   or   six  miles  nearer  Brechut's; 
while  a  son  of  the  latter  was  to  settle  in  Low's  house, 
on  the  little  lake,  so  that  future  travellers  will  pro- 
bably find  more  settlers  along  this  road  than  it  was  ray 
fortune  to  meet  with. 

To  Noble's — a  larger  house,  better  provided  than 
Brechut's,  and  where  a  night  may  be  spent,  as  my 
conductor  said,  "  sans  grand  mis^re  " — eight  miles. 
To  Evans'  —  a  solitary  resident  in  a  log-hut,  in  a 
wild  small  hollow  of  flattish  land,  surrounded  by 
high,  steep,  pine-timbered  mountains,  almost  preci- 
pices, on  the  banks  of  the  White  EiveVj  as  it  is 
called  by  the  Canadians — twenty  miles. 


8  usually 
ree  days, 
lorning,  I 
J  by  the 
avoid  the 
wilderness 

y  few,  and 

Qall  clear- 
seventeen 

Metapediac 
[or  bed  for 
habited  by 
change  of 
it  is  not  to 
aeen  got  at 

ring  on  the 
John  Low 

AT  clearance 
Brechut's; 
jow's  house, 
8  will  pro- 
a  it  was  ray 


DIFFICULT  MOUNTAIN-ROAD. 


387 


)er. 


To  the  nearest  clearing  from  this  towards  the  Resti- 
gouche,  on  fine  hardwood  land,  twelve  hundred 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea — twelve  miles. 
To  Dixon's — a  clean  and  comfortable  inn  kept  by  a 
Scotchman,  Mr  Dixon,  surveyor  of  the  road,  mail- 
contractor,  and  the  owner  of  eight  hundred  acres 
of  excellent  land,  in  one  of  the  most  beautifully 
picturesque  situations  in  all  Canada — four  miles. 
To  the    Restigouche  ferry — a    rapid  descent    from 
Dixon's  to  the  river — eight  miles. 
The  whole  distance  being  about  100  miles,  during  80 
of  which   the  road  runs  through  a  continuous,  almost 
untraversed  forest.     With  the  single  exception  of  the 
postman  in  his  one-horse  car,  who  passes  along  once 
a-week,  we  did  not  meet  a  single  individual  the  whole 
way  through  the  forest. 

The  first  five  leagues,  as  far  as  Frazer's,  were  ex- 
ceedingly mountainous  and  difficult.  I  have  already 
described  the  interior  country  of  Lower  Canada,  bor- 
dering the  St  Lawrence,  as  consisting  of  a  series  of 
ridges  running  parallel  with  the  river,  and  separated 
by  intervening  more  or  less  narrow  valleys.  Such  is 
the  country  as  far  as  Frazer's.  It  is  a  prolongation  of 
the  New  England  mountains  towards  the  promontory 
of  Gaspd — a  succession  of  steep  climbs  and  difficult 
descents,  the  latter  being  often  not  less  painful  and 
oppressive  to  the  horse  than  the  former. 

Frazer's  is  situated  at  the  commencement  of  a  table- 
land, which  extends  for  nearly  three  leagues,  forming 
the  best  and  most  easy  part  of  the  whole  Kempt  Road. 
From  this  table-land,  a  long  gentle  descent  brought  us 
down  to  the  level  of  the  Metapediac  Lake,  on  the  edge 
of  which  stood  the  house  and  farm  of  Brechut. 
Around  this  lake  there  is  much  flat  land — generally, 
far  as  I  could  see,  either  a  stiffish  light-coloured 


so 


"(«*«• 


i 


i  I 


clay,   or    more  or  less  soft,   wet,   and   black  swamp. 


S 


B88 


LAKE   METAPEDIAC. 


All,  however,  is  covered  with  wood,  with  the  exception 
of  some  of  the  drier  parts  at  the  one  end,  which  Brechut 
has  cleared  and  brought  into  cultivation.  Blocks  of 
limestone  are  scattered  about  the  shores  of  the  lake ;  and 
the  same  rock,  resting  upon  a  white  sandstone,  occurs 
in  situ  along  its  south-western  border.  This  limestone 
contains  fossils,  and  is  considered,  by  Mr  Murray  of  the 
Canadian  Geological  Survey,  to  be  an  extension  of  the 
limestone  formation  which,  with  intermixed,  often  green- 
ish calcareous  shales,  forms  stupendous  sea-cliffs,  700 
feet  in  height,  at  Gasp^  Promontory,  and,  altogether, 
attains  a  thickness  of  2000  feet.  I  had  not  an  oppor- 
tunity of  ascertaining  whether  the  age  of  this  limestone 
had  been  exactly  made  out  by  Mr  Murray,  but  the 
fossils  he  mentions  indicate  that  this  extensive  calca- 
reojis  formation  of  Gasp^  is  closely  related  to  the  Hel- 
derberg  series  of  the  New  York  geologists. 

If  such  be  the  age  of  this  limestone,  a  belt  of  very 
good  land  ought  to  extend  in  a  north-east  and  south- 
westerly direction,  from  Gasp^  Promontory,  through 
this  part  of  Lower  Canada.  From  what  I  saw  of  tlie 
borders  of  the  lake,  it  appeared  to  me  certain  that,  wild 
as  it  now  looks,  and  remotely  as  it  is  situated,  the  time 
will  yet  arrive  when  drainage  and  the  use  of  lime  will 
make  fertile  wheat-land  of  the  flat  country  which 
fringes  this  extensive  sheet  of  water.  A  natural  outlet 
for  its  produce  exists  down  the  Metapediac  River,  to  the 
Restigouche  on  the  south ;  and  should  the  road  be  im- 
proved towards  the  north,  by  following  the  course  of 
the  streams  instead  of  crossing  all  the  ridges,  as  the 
Kempt  Eoad  does,  the  access  to  the  St  Lawrence  will 
be  made  at  least  equally  easy.  A  grant  of  50,000 
selected  acres  here  now,  would  be  a  fine  fortune  for  a 
family  some  three  generations  hence. 

About  nine  in  the  morning  we  arrived  at  Brechut's, 
and,  after  breakfasting,  and  resting  our  horse  for  an 


BLACK  AND  BURNED  COUNTRY. 


389 


the  exception 
trhich  Brechut 
1.  Blocks  of 
the  lake ;  and 
Istone,  occurs 
^his  limestone 
lurray  of  the 
ension  of  the 
I,  often  green- 
sea-cliffs,  700 
d,  altogether, 
lot  an  oppor- 
this  limestone 
rray,  but  the 
tensive  calca- 
ed  to  the  Hel- 

• 

a  belt  of  very 
ist  and  south- 
tory,  through 
I  saw  of  the 
tain  that,  wild 
ated,  the  time 
e  of  lime  will 
lountry  which 
natural  outlet 
J  River,  to  the 
le  road  be  im- 

the  course  of 
ridges,  as  the 
Lawrence  will 
ant  of  50,000 

fortune  for  a 

I  at  Brechut's, 
r  horse  for  an 


hour,  we  started  again  for  John  Low's,  on  the  small  or 
lower  lake.  This  part  of  the  road  is  not  beset  by  so 
many  high  hills  and  steep  descents  as  between  Mitis 
and  Frazer's ;  but  it  is  in  many  places  nearly  overrun 
again  with  a  natural  growth  of  young  trees,  and  the 
roads  are  deep,  stony,  and  full  of  holes,  so  that  our  pro- 
gress was  slow,  and  shaky  in  a  very  unpleasant  degree. 
The  borders  of  this  lower  lake  are  not  void  of  beauty ; 
but  it  is  a  solitary  abode  for  a  small  family,  and  neither 
man  nor  wife  in  this  hut  looked  as  if  they  were  spending 
a  happy  life. 

From  IjOw's  to  Noble's,  a  distance  of  eight  miles, 
though  not  hilly,  was  the  most  disagreeable  of  the 
whole  traverse.  After  a  mile  of  tolerable  road,  came 
two  miles  of  the  roughest  and  stoniest  I  ever  travelled. 
Every  yard  had  its  own  jolt  and  shake  in  store  for  us, 
which  sixteen  hours  upon  a  hard  seat  had  not  prepared 
me,  at  least,  to  undergo  with  a  great  degree  of  equani- 
mity. And  when  we  were  clear  of  this  bed  of  stones, 
and  were  beginning  to  mend  our  pace  a  little,  the  sun 
set,  and  the  brief  twilight  had  already  nearly  passed 
away,  when  we  came  upon  a  gloomy,  miserable-looking 
burnt  tract  of  land,  sloping  rapidly  towards  the  Meta- 
pediac  River,  blackened  by  thousands  of  charred  stumps, 
and  intersected  by  numerous  deep  narrow  valleys,  often 
mere  gullies,  with  little  streamlets  descending  through 
the  dark  peaty  soil  which  covered  their  bottoms. 

As  we  almost  groped  our  way  over  this  melancholy 
tract,  we  found  ourselves  suddenly  upon  one  extremity 
of  a  bridge,  the  other  end  of  which  yawned  like  a  black 
gulf  before  us,  and  proved  to  have  been  burned.  The 
eyes  of  niy  Canadian  companion  were  fortunately  better 
than  ray  own,  and  the  horse  was  pulled  up  in  time  to 
prevent  our  being  all  precipitated  into  the  brook  below. 
Having  dismounted,  we  f:  vnd  an  awkward  steep  descent 
to  the  edge  of  the  water,  and  by  means  of  a  temporary 


m 


\ 


390 


BURNED  BRIDGES. 


>j| 


bridj^o  of  logs,  and  then  a  steep  climb,  we  gained  tlie 
road  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  ravine.  I  was  congra- 
tulating myself  that  this  difficulty  had  been  got  over 
before  the  darkness  had  become  more  intense,  when  wo 
arrived  at  the  top  of  a  much  steeper  bank  above  another 
burned  bridge,  and  had  again  to  grope  our  way  on  foot, 
down  one  precipitous  bank  and  up  another — a  labour 
which,  with  the  waggon  behind  it,  our  active  and  will- 
ing little  horse,  much  to  my  surprise,  though  with  con- 
siderable difficulty,  accomplished.  It  was  the  steepest 
breasting  of  a  bank  by  a  horse  with  anything  behind 
it  I  have  ever  seen,  either  before  or  since.  It  was  a 
help  to  us,  in  these  difficult  circumstances,  that  the 
bridges  along  this  road  were  all  painted  white,  a  cir- 
cumstance known  to  my  conductor,  and  which  enabled 
him  ,to  discover,  before  we  came  to  the  burned  places, 
that  something  was  not  as  it  should  be  in  advance.  I 
was  not  sorry,  however,  when,  in  about  half-an-hour 
from  this  last  bridge,  through  the  midst  of  to  :^e  im- 
penetrable darkness,  the  sound  of  a  dog  barking,  and 
soon  after  the  gleam  of  a  blazing  fire  through  an  open 
door,  announced  that  we  had  reached  the  end  of  this 
long  day's  journey. 

The  burning  of  the  forests  through  all  this  country, 
along  the  borders  of  the  Metapediac  River,  not  only 
renders  it  black  and  melancholy  to  look  upon,  but 
actually  injures  the  surface-soil  in  quality,  renders  it 
incapable  of  easy  settlement,  and  prevents  the  explorer 
from  judging,  by  the  nature  of  the  timber,  what  the 
prospects  of  a  cultivator  on  such  land  would  be. 
Through  the  carelessness  of  lumberers,  Indians,  and 
other  rovers  in  the  woods,  these  forests  have  been 
burned  over  and  over  again.  This  want  of  care  there 
is  as  yet  no  law  to  punish.  The  extraordinary  heat 
and  drought  of  the  present  summer  have  particularly 
favoured  the  spread  of  fires,  and  increased,  beyond  their 


\^-f 


A  NIGHT  AT  NOBLE  8. 


391 


gained  the 
(vas  congra- 
n  got  over 
ic,  when  wo 
ove  another 
^ay  on  foot, 
— a  labour 
D  and  will- 
i  with  con- 
he  steepest 
ling  behind 
It  was  a 
3,  tliat  the 
bite,  a  cir- 
ch  enabled 
tied  places, 
dvance.    I 
alf-an-hour 
to  'Tie  im- 
rking,  and 
fh  an  open 
ud  of  this 

is  country, 
not  only 
upon,  but 
renders  it 
e  explorer 
what  the 
would  be. 
Hans,  and 
lave  been 
3are  there 
nary  heat 
irticularly 
yond  their 


average  amount,  the  number  of  public  casualties,  which 
the  provincial  authorities  are  required  to  repair.  Hence 
it  is,  I  suppose,  that,  although  the  bridges  I  have  spoken 
of  were  burned  in  June  or  July,  the  Canadian  Govern- 
ment has  as  yet  left  them  unrepaired.  It  is  in  winter, 
also,  that  large  timber  for  such  works  can  be  most 
economically  cut,  and  hauled  from  the  place  of  its 
growth  to  the  spot  where  it  is  required. 

When  this  road  was  first  opened  and  made  a  mail- 
route,  this  station  of  Noble's  and  that  of  Brechut,  on 
Lake  Metapediac,  were  fixed  upon  by  the  Provincial 
Government,  and  the  two  present  occupiers  placed 
in  them,  with  small  pensions,  to  keep  open  house  for 
strangers  and  to  facilitate  the  weekly  progress  of  the 
post.  This  pension,  much  to  his  d'ssatisfaction,  as  ho 
was  at  pains  to  inform  me,  had  been  withdrawn  from 
Noble,  but  he  still  lingers  in  his  wilderness  home,  sur- 
rounded by  a  flourishing  family,  apparently  ignorant  of 
serious  privation,  and  receiving  and  accommodating 
gladly  any  traveller  who  is  willing  to  pay — a  quality 
the  want  of  which,  he  assured  me,  was  always  to  be  sus- 
pected when  the  guest  had  French  Canadian  blood  in 
his  veins.  I  found  myself  therefore  very  comfortable 
under  his  roof — as  travelling  goes  in  the  wilderness.  A 
huge  log-fire  in  the  kitchen,  tea  I  had  brought  with  me 
from  Quebec,  fish  from  the  Metapediac — which  flowed 
past  the  house — potatoes  from  Noble's  garden,  new  bread 
baked  on  a  hot  plate  for  the  occasion,  and  finally  a 
clean,  and  not  uncomfortable  bed,  wound  up  the  adven- 
tures of  the  day. 

Saturday,  Oct.  6.  —  Rested  and  refreshed,  I  arose 
at  five ;  and  by  six  o'clock  had  breakfasted,  and  was 
again  on  my  way — as  from  Noble's  to  the  ferry  on  the 
Restigouche,  I  was  assured,  was  a  good  twelve  hours' 
journey. 

From  Noble's  to  the  solitary  hollow — for  it  cannot  be 


392 


SOLITARY   EVANS. 


cftUed  a  valley — in  which  Evans  was  located  is  twenty 
miles.  Several  very  long  hills,  and  many  very  steep 
ascents  and  descents  of  a  shorter  kind,  were  passed  during 
these  twenty  miles.  As  in  the  latter  half  of  yesterday's 
drive,  the  soft  or  pine  and  birchwood  forests,  generally 
unbroken,  still  accompanied  me  ;  though  here  and  there 
patches  or  ridges,  more  or  less  broad,  of  hardwood  or 
broad-leaved  trees  occurred,  which  will  hereafter  be 
selected  as  centres  for  settlement,  and  from  which  the  na- 
tural expansion  of  a  growing  population  will  gradually 
spread  the  arts  of  rural  life  over  less  promising  districts. 

This  morning  there  had  been  frost  enough  to  produce 
ice  half-an-inch  thick,  and  to  make  me,  in  addition  to  a 
Canadian  home-spun  coat  over  my  English  great  coat, 
feel  thankful  for  a  Buffalo  coat  also,  which  my  landlord 
on  the  Mitis  had  kindly  thrust  upon  me  for  the  journey. 
The  hoar-frost  which  covered  the  woods  through  which 
we  passed  lingered  upon  the  trees,  and  made  the  air 
around  us  chilly  till  far  on  in  the  day — when  the  sun 
became  high  enough  at  last  to  peep  into  the  narrow 
forest  channel  through  which  we  were  sailing,  and  restore 
the  green  colours  again  to  the  snowy  leaves. 

Evans — solitary,  and  still  young — we  found  digging 
and  pitting  potatoes,  of  which,  for  a  single  man,  he  had 
a  good  supply.  He  had  also  some  oats,  which  were 
already  cut.  He  had  been  a  lumberer,  and,  like  his  com- 
panions, given  to  drink  when  occasion  presented.  In 
their  society,  he  found  he  could  neither  alter  his  habits 
nor  accumulate  money.  "  I  therefore  foreswore  liquor," 
he  said,  "  and  settled  in  this  lonely  spot."  For  four 
years  he  had  lived  here,  and  though  he  had  liquor  in  his 
house,  as  he  showed  me,  yet  for  four  years  he  had 
abstained.  In  the  autumn,  he  made  a  little  money  by 
going  to  the  settlements  to  aid  at  the  harvest.  But  the 
solitude  had  at  last  become  too  intense  for  him,  and  he 
was  about  to  remove  twelve  miles  nearer  the  Eesti- 


ESCAPE   FROM   THE  FOREST. 


m 


is  twenty 
cry  steep 
led  during 
esterday's 
generally 
and  there 
•dwood  or 
•eafter   be 
cli  the  na- 
gradually 
5  districts, 
to  produce 
lition  to  a 
^reat  coat, 
y  landlord 
le  journey, 
ugh  which 
de  the  air 
2n  the  sun 
[le  narrow 
md  restore 

id  digging 
!in,  he  had 
Inch  were 
e  his  cem- 
ented.    In 
his  habits 
re  liquor," 
For  four 
D[Uor  in  his 
rs  he  had 
money  by 
,     But  the 
m, and  he 
nthe  Resti- 


gouchc,  to  a  ridge  of  good  land  where  there  were  already 
many  settlers,  and  where  the  sounds  and  sights  and 
sympathies  of  civilised  life  would  be  within  his  reach. 
Of  strong-minded  men,  like  th^s  Evans,  capable  under 
emergencies  of  great  self-control  and  self-denial,  these 
wilderness  countries  exhibit  to  the  traveller  many 
striking  examples. 

In  Evans'  hut,  I  made  tea  for  the  whole  trio ;  and 
then,   having  fed  our  horse  with  a  bottle  of  his  new 
oats,  we  again  proceeded.     Twelve  miles  beyond,  the 
country  changed.     It  became  broken  with  distinct  hills 
and  ridges.     The  forest  trees  altered  also.     Instead  of 
pine  and  white  birch,  maple,  red  birch,  and  hornbeam, 
mingled  with  rarer  pines,  hung  out  their  broad  leaves — 
already  assuming  their  autumn  tints — to  the  declining 
sun.      We  had  come  upon  what  was  called  a  hardwood 
ridge  of  strong  fertile  land ; '  and  I  cannot  express  the 
welcome  feeling  with  which,  while  still  two  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea,  I  looked  far  forward  along  the  narrow 
road,  chiselled  as  it  were  out  of  the  old  forest,  upon  a 
green  field  in  the  distance — the  first  symptom  of  our 
approach  to  a  region  where  art  and  human  intelligence 
were  successfully  striving  with  the  long  mastery  which 
unbridled  nature  had  been  exercising  over  the  submis- 
sive soil. 

We  had  some  time  before  passed  the  culminating  point 
of  this  extensive  traverse,  and  were  now  descending  a 
long  slope  looking  towards  the  south.  This  descent 
brought  us,  in  what  I  now  thought  a  short  period  of 
time,  to  the  final  limits  of  the  primeval  forest.  I  almost 
felt  unwilling  to  leave  behind  me  its  more  cheerful 
broad-leaved  beauty,  as  we  emerged  among  cleared 
fields,  where  the  still  golden  stubble  indicated  that  wheat, 
or  oats,  or  rye,  had  recently  been  reaped ;  and  where  the 
large  green  leaves  of  the  turnip,  and  the  blooming  tops 
of  the  potato,  still  covered  the  ground. 


fv 


» ■  .^.^^ .  .•■a»--Ju.  I0»*.,«vn^* 


- 

394 

HOME  VOICES  AND  ASSOCIATIONS. 

Affo 

!•  ninnvnr'inrii    fi'/Mn   nirrlitv  nii1r>a    nf   flonmAv  VirnlfOfl 

forest,  it  was  to  me  a  very  interesting  sight,  upon  the 
first  green  spot  of  fenced  land  which  caught  my  eye,  to 
discover  a  field   of  dark  green   broad-leaved   turnips. 
Home  thoughts  spontaneously  awoke  with  many  homo 
associations.     Homo  pictures  sprang  up  before  me,  and 
home  culture    and  home  improvement  were  called    to 
mind  by  the  sudden  sight  of  these  healthy  and  luxuriant 
crops  of  Avhat,  without  a  pun,  may  bo  truly  called  the 
root  of  agricultural  improvement.    Home  breeds  of  stock 
also,   though   mixed — the  sound  of  Scottish  voices — a 
Scottish    ploughman   behind   a    Scottish    plough — and 
females,  not  disdauiing  to  assist  in  raising  the  potato 
which  a  kind  Providence  had  this  year  preserved  for 
them — all  spoke  of  my  own  land,  and  of  those  rural 
distriqts  where  educated  intelligence  and  contented  in- 
dustry unite  in  spreading  the  happy  results   of  better 
husbandry.    Even  the  noisy  and  troublesome  cur,  rushing 
out  with  his  boisterous  salute,  was  welcome  to  us,  as  we 
emerged  from  the  soundless  woods,  where  three  or  four 
rare  birds  were  the  only  wild  things  we  had  seen  in  all 
our  journey.     And  yet  the  autumn-tinted  maple-groves, 
bordering  the  green  fields,  gave  a  peculiarity  to  the 
landscape  which  commingled  foreign  with  home  feelings, 
and  kept  still   present  before  me  the  realities  of  my 
actual  position.     Along  v^ith  all  these  pleasant  imagin- 
ings too,  it  was  a  great  relief  to  think  that  the  more 
uncertain  and  unpleasant  part  of  my  present  journey  was 
over,  and  that  for  some  time  to  come  I  might  hope  to 
to  see  the  accompaniments  of   civilised  life,   and   the 
evidences  of  human  skill  and  industry  around  me. 

These  first  settlements  we  came  to  are  about  eight 
miles  north,  in  a  straight  line,  from  the  banks  of  the 
Restigouche  River,  and  1250  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
sea.  That  the  crops  and  culture  and  farming  I  saw 
here  should  be  possible  at  so  high  a  level,  shows,  not 


REMOTE  AND  ELEVATED  COUNTRY. 


396 


v\y  broken 
,  upon  the 
my  eye,  to 
(1  turnips, 
lany  homo 
re  mc,  and 

called  to 
[  luxuriant 
called  the 
ds  of  stock 

voices — a 
)ugh — and 
the  potato 
served  for 
hose  rural 
itcnted  in- 

of  better 
jr,  rushing 
)  us,  as  we 
ee  or  four 
seen  in  all 
ile-groves, 
ity  to  the 
e  feelings, 
ies  of  my 
it  imagin- 

the  more 
urney  was 
it  hope  to 
and  the 
ne. 

jout  eight 
iks  of  the 
vel  of  the 
ng  I  saw 
shows,  not 


only  that  the  land  is  naturally  good,  but  that  this 
northern  climate  must  be  far  more  propitiuns  to  vegeta- 
tion than  is  generally  believed. 

One  thing  the  traveller  throtgh  a  region  like  this 
is  surprised  at,  when  ho  stumbles  on  a  settled  and  culti- 
vated tract  of  land,  such  as  I  was  now  passing  through. 
lie  wonders  how  the  people  came  to  find  it  out.  Who 
induced  all  these  men  and  women  to  leave  remote  corners 
of  Scotland,  and  settle  in  this  remoter  corner  of  south- 
eastern Canada  V  The  whole  line  of  country  is  a  terra 
incogmta  at  Quebec  and  at  Fredericton.  At  the  scats  of 
Government  of  both  provinces,  where  they  complain  of 
how  little  we  know  of  their  geography  at  home,  the  spot 
I  speak  of  was  absolutely  unknown ;  and  yet  humble 
Scotchmen  and  their  families  had  made  choice  of  it,  and 
already  fixed  upon  it  their  future  homes.  There  is  an 
under-current  of  knowledge  flowing  among  the  masses, 
chiefly  through  the  literary  communications  of  far  dis- 
tant blood  relations,  of  which  public  literature  knows 
nothing,  and  even  Governments  are  unaware. 

To  Dixon's,  which  is  four  miles  from  the  first  clearing, 
we  passed  through  a  succession  of  new  farms — for  all  this 
tract  is  newly  settled — for  the  most  part  upon  good  land, 
and  descended  about  200  feet,  being  now  on  the  slope 
towards  the  Restigouche.  On  approaching  his  house 
and  farm,  which  are  still  1000  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  sea,  the  view  of  the  mountainous  regions  towards 
the  south  and  west  was  truly  beautiful.  Trap  rocks  or 
mountains,  in  this  direction,  rise  up  among  the  stratified 
deposits,  and  give  a  new  and  magnificent  character  fo 
the  landscape,  as  seen  from  this  comparatively  lofty  eleva- 
tion. An  amphitheatre  of  peaks  stretches  almost  as  far 
as  the  eye  can  reach ;  while,  in  the  foreground,  single 
elevations  cheered  the  eye  with  the  warm  tints  of  the 
hardwood  growth  that  covered  them.  I  regretted  that  I 
could  not  spare  even  a  single  hour  at  Dixon's,  to  enjoy 


396 


dixon's  high-land  farm. 


more  fully  the  passing  mountain  scenery  which  glided  so 
rapidly  beforfe  ray  eye,  as  the  carriage  hastened  on.  On 
leaving  St  John,  six  weeks  before,  for  my  tour  through 
western  New  York  and  Canada,  I  had  made  an 
appointment  to  meet  my  two  New  Brunswick  travelling 
companions  this  very  evening,  on  the  shores  of  the 
Restigouche  ;  and  I  had  still  eight  miles  and  a  ferry  to 
cross,  before  I  should  arrive  at  Campbelton,  the  end  of 
my  journey. 

From  Dixonj  I  obtained  most  favourable  accounts  of 
the  quality  and  productiveness  of  the  land  at  this  high 
elevation  of  1000  feet.  He  is  the  possessor  of  800  acres, 
and  farms  what  is  cleared  of  these.  Besides  turnips, 
potatoes,  and  green  crops  generally,  for  which  his  land  is 
admirably  adapted,  he  grows  wheat  yearly  without  fail. 
His  wheat  ripens  well.  The  wheat-midge  has  never 
visited  him  as  yet,  though  he  is  occasionally  troubled 
with  rust ;  and  he  has  reaped  upwards  of  50  bushels  an 
acre.  Indian  corn,  he  said,  would  ripen  with  him  in  such 
a  season  as  this.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that,  in  clearing  this 
fine  district  of  country,  the  necessity  of  shelter  will  not 
be  forgotten  ;  and  that  the  certainty  of  the  harvests,  now 
that  the  fields  are  surrounded  by  the  native  forests,  may 
not  be  sacrificed  by  laying  them  too  open  to  the  cold 
winds  from  the  Bay  de  Chaleur. 

At  Dixon's,  I  met  with  a  Yankee  phrenologist,  and  a 
Yankee  maker  of  daguerreotypes,  who,  after  a  successful 
campaign  in  New  Brunswick,  were  so  far  on  their  way 
to  Lower  Canada,  to  experiment  on  the  heads  and  faces 
of  the  habitants  along  the  shore  of  the  St  Lawrence. 
A  certain  number  of  these  peripatetic  philosophers  find 
the  British  provinces  a  profitable  country  to  explore.  I 
dare  not  venture  to  put  down  the  number  of  dollars  I 
afterwards  learn  d  that  these  men  had  carried  with  them 
from  Campbelton,  the  little  town  to  which  I  was  going. 
Such  men  as  these  not  unfrequently  hunt  in  couples  j 


PERIPATETIC  YANKEES. 


397 


glided  so 
on.  On 
r  through 
made  an 
travelling 
ea  of  the 
a  ferry  to 
he  end  of 

ceounts  of 
this  high 
800  acres, 
!S  turnips, 
his  land  is 
Ithout  fail, 
has  never 
y  troubled 
bushels  an 
iin  in  such 
aring  this 
!r  will  not 
•vests,  now 
rests,  may 
the  cold 

^ist,  and  a 
successful 
their  way 
and  faces 
jawrence. 
pliers  find 
xplore.  I 
f  dollars  I 
with  them 
'as  going, 
couples } 


and  the  French  Canadians  are  capital  game  for  them. 
To  reach  this  race  of  men,  they  rarely  come  by  the 
remote  route  which  these  two  were  taking.  By  Lake 
Champlaln  the  road  is  shorter  from  New  England,  and 
the  heart  of  the  country  more  easily  accessible.  While  I 
was  on  my  short  visit  to  St  Hilaire  from  Montreal,  two 
of  these  experimenters  approached  the  St  Lawrence 
through  the  eastern  counties,  by  way  of  St  Hyacinth 
and  the  railroad.  One  of  them,  for  two  dollars,  taught 
how  to  convert  a  barrel  of  flour  into  a  barrel  of  soap,  in 
ten  minutes !  and  the  other  sold,  at  a  dollar  a  gallon,  a 
black  varnish,  which  was  the  best  in  the  world.  We 
are  here  in  Eiigland  as  gullible  as  any  nation  on  earth  ; 
but  the  guUers  generally  arise  from  among  ourselves.  It 
may  not  be,  therefore,  that  a  better  education  would 
protect  the  Lower  Canadians  much  from  this  class  of 
impostors.  They  are  far  out  of  the  world,  and  simple, 
because  they  are  so ;  but  education  is  a  good  thing  in 
many  other  ways,  and  it  may  be  fairly  tried  as  a  giver  of 
greater  practical  wisdom  too. 

Dixon  himself  drove  me  down  the  last  eight  miles  to 
the  ferry,  which  I  reached  just  as  the  twilight  ended. 
Half-an-hour  more  took  me  across  to  the  town  of  Camp- 
belton,  where  I  arrived  about  7  P.  M.,  having  finished 
this  journey  in  six  days,  as  I  hoped  to  do  when  I  left 
Quebec  on  Monday  morning.  Hotels  are  not  abundant, 
but  I  obtained  tolerable  quarters  for  the  night ;  and  on 
the  following  day,  through  the  hospitality  of  my  New 
Brunswick  friends,  was  provided  with  excellent  accom- 
modation. 

Monday^  Oct.  8. — The  only  church  at  Campbelton  is 
a  Presbyterian,  and  the  clergymen  being  from  home 
yesterday,  there  was  no  service.  I  therefore  walked  up 
the  river  two  or  three  miles  to  Atholl  House,  where  I 
was  induced  to  remain  for  a  couple  of  days  under  the 
hospitable  roof  of  Mr  Ferguson.    To  all  who  have  ever 


398 


THE  RIVER  RESTIGOUCHE. 


visited  the  Restigouche,  this  gentleman,  by  character 
at  least,  is  known.  He  was  one  of  the  first  British 
settlers  in  this  part  of  the  colony,  and  one  of  its  most 
energetic  improvers  and  explorers.  Mrs  Ferguson  was 
the  first  child  of  British  parents  born  upon  the  Resti- 
gouche. Where  there  are  now  so  many  old  farms,  and 
comfortably  settled  inhabitants,  it  was  very  interesting  to 
find  the  first  explorers  still  alive,  and  witnesses  of  the 
pleasing  results  of  their  early  exertions. 

The  Restigouche  is  here  the  boundary  between  Canada 
and  New  Brunswick.  Flowing  from  the  west,  it  rises 
partly  in  the  Canadian  and  partly  in  the  New  Brunswick 
highlands.  It  receives  various  tributaries,  of  which  the 
Upsalquitch  is  the  most  important  from  the  New 
Brunswick,  and,  six  miles  lower  down,  the  Metapediac 
from  the  Canadian  side.  Soon  after  the  junction  of  the 
latter!  stream,  the  Restigouche  widens  out  into  a 
spacious  harbour  about  two  miles  in  breadth,  and  four- 
and-twenty  miles  in  length.  The  mouth  of  the  harbour 
or  river  is  at  Dalhousie,  sixteen  miles  below  Campbel- 
ton,  and  it  is  deep  and  navigable  for  the  largest  ships 
almost  as  far  as  the  tide  ascends,  which  is  six  miles 
above  Campbelton.  It  is  bordered  on  either  hand  by  a 
belt  eight  or  ten  miles  broad,  of  excellent  hardwood 
upland,  resembling  in  quality  that  which  I  had  passed 
through  on  the  Canadian  side  after  I  had  emerged  from 
the  forest.  Along  the  river  are  margins  of  flat  intervale, 
sometimes  narrowing  to  a  mere  fringe,  at  others 
expanding  into  fertile  alluvial  tracts  containing  hundreds 
of  acres.  Of  the  upland,  the  greater  portion  is  still 
under  virgin  forests  ;  but  the  flat  lands,  for  a  long  way 
up  the  river,  are  granted  to  actual  or  intending  settlers, 
aud  are  more  or  less  under  cultivation.  Below  Dalhousie 
the  harbour  widens  further  into  what  is  called  Resti- 
gouche Bay,  and,  finally,  into  what  the  early  French 
discoverers  named  the  Baie  de  Chaleur. 


VIEW  ON  THE  RIVER. 


399 


character 
at  British 
P  its  most 
;u8on  was 
he  Resti- 
arms,  and 
Testing  to 
ses  of  the 

en  Canada 

!st,  it  rises 

Brunswick 

which  the 

the    New 

[etapedlac 

ion  of  the 

it   into    a 

,  and  four- 

le  harbour 

Campbel- 

(rest  ships 

six  miles 

hand  by  a 

hardwood 

ad  passed 

rged  from 

intervale, 

at    others 

hundreds 

pn  is   still 

long  way 

settlers, 

Dalhousie 

ed  Eesti- 

y  French 


We  devoted  this  forenoon  to  an   excursion  up  the 
river  six  or  seven  miles,  to  what  are  called  the  Flat  Lands j 
par  excellence.      These  consist  of  about  five  hundred 
acres  of  alluvial  flats  and  terraces,  which  skirt  the  river 
chiefly  on  its  left  bank,  forming  fine  arable  farms.     The 
day  was  fine,  the  air  clear,  and  from  some  of  the  hills 
which  skirt  the  road  along  the  river,  the  view  was  very 
beautiful.     At  the  head  of  the  tide-water,  where  the 
harbour  narrows  into  the  river,  its   bosom  is  studded 
with  upwards  of  twenty  small  islands.     These  little 
sunny  wooded  islands  immediately  beneath  our  feet ;  the 
interminable  river  stretching  upwards,  now  seen,  now 
lost  amid  the  hills  and  forests ;  the  far  view  to  the  right, 
carrying  the  eye  beyond  the  harbour  and  river-bay  till 
it  lost  itself  towards  Miscou  Island,  where  the  waters  of 
the  Bay  de  Chaleur  intermingle  with  those  of  the  Gulf 
of   St    Lawrence ;     and    more    near,    the    Sugar-loaf 
Mountain  lifting  its  solitary  bulk   on  the  right  bank 
between  us  and  Campbelton  ;  while  lower  down,  on  the 
Canadian  side,  the  loftier  Tragadcgash,  wooded  to  the 
very  summit,  towered  over  the  entire  channel :  all  this, 
in  the  clear  sunshine  of  this  climate,  form  .1  a  delightful 
picture.     And  the  beauty  of  this  picture  was  heightened 
by  the  frame-work  of  high  lands  on  each  side,  between 
which  it  w^as  all  enclosed.     Enlivened  by  the  autumnal 
tints  which  characterise  the  hardwood  forests  of  North 
America,  the  mountain-ranges  on  either  hand  seemed  to 
rejoice  in  the  bright  warm  rays  from  the  sunny  sky, 
while  they  spoke  to  the  instructed  observer  of  agricultural 
capabilities  in  the  yet  untouched  wilderness,  which  we 
Europeans  are  little  accustomed  to  look  for  in  so  remote 
a  region  as  this. 

The  settlers  on  the  front  Concession  along  the  river, 
above  and  below  Campbelton,  are  chiefly  from  the 
Scotch  island  of  Arran ;  and  they  are  all  thriving — not 
laying  up  money,  but  independent — and  bringing  up 


400 


SETTLERS  FROM  ARRAN. 


tlieir  families,  which  are  usually  large,  in  comfort  and 
plenty.     The  progress  of  settlement  in  this  promising 
district  may  be  judged  of  from  the  fact  that,  six  years 
ago,  the  front  Concession  or  row  of  farms  was  scarcely 
occupied,  whereas  now  there  are  settlers  as  far  back  as 
the  third  Concession.    And  yet  there  has  been  no  rush  of 
emigration  to  this  point,  the  arrivals  of  new   settlers 
being   small    and   gradual,   and  rather  of  a   dripping 
character.     The  back-settlers  are  chiefly  Irish.     Those 
of  this  nation  who  do  come  here  appear  generally  to 
thrive,  as  there  is  not  a  single  pauper  in  the  whole  largo 
county  of  Restigouche,  with  the  exception  of  a  straggling 
French   Canadian   now   and   then,  from   the    opposite 
Gasp^  country,  on  the  Bay  de  Chaleur,  or  an  unsteady 
and  idle  Irish  immigrant. 

I  went  into  several  of  the  houses,  generally  of  small 
pretfinsions,  of  the  settlers  on  the  banks  of  the  Resti- 
gouche at  this  upper  part.  They  were  Scotch,  English, 
and  Irish.  All  expressed  themselves  as  being  happy 
and  contented,  and  their  children  looked  healthy.  Very 
old  people  abounded,  which  also  spoke  for  the  health  of 
the  climate ;  and  it  was  said  to  be  rare  for  children  to 
to  die  young. 

Few  things  are  more  interesting  in  a  strange  and 
distant  land — carrying  you  sooner  into  the  hearts  of  the 
people,  and  giving  you  with  them  the  position  and 
familiarity  of  an  old  friend — than  to  be  able  to  talk  to 
them  about  their  old  haunts  at  home.  In  one  cottage 
the  mistress  was  now  a  widow :  she  was  from  Devon- 
shire, and  had  been  many  years  before  a  servant  of  the 
incumbent  of  Linton.  I  spoke  to  her  of  Bideford  and  the 
Valley  of  Rocks,  and  Ilfracombe.  It  was  holding  up  to 
her  a  picture  of  old  and  happy  days.  "  Oh  sir ! "  she 
said,  as  I  left  her,  "  I  do  so  like  to  hear  about  Ilfracombe 
and  Combe  Martin,  and  all  them  places." 

But  a  broad  Lowland  Scotch  tongue,  and  a  knowledge 


•««> 


THE  CAUSE YSIDE  OF  PAISLEY. 


mi 


mfort  and 
promising 
six  years 
IS  scarcely 
ar  back  as 
no  rush  of 
w  settlers 
,  dropping 
ih.  Those 
enerally  to 
vhole  large 
I  straggling 
e  opposite 
m  unsteady 

lly  of  small 
f  the  Kesti- 
eh,  English, 
eing  happy 
[thy.  Very 
he  health  of 
•  children  to 

strange  and 
icarts  of  the 
losition    and 
de  to  talk  to 
one  cottage 
•om  Devon- 
•vant  of  the 
ford  and  the 
jolding  up  to 
►h  sir!"  she 
|t  Ilfracombe 

,  knowledge 


of  Scottish  localities,  will  make  a  man  at  home  in  a 
greater  number  of  houses  in  New  Brunswick  than 
almost  any  other  qualification  which  a  Briton  can 
possess ;  and  I  think  I  spoke  more  broad  Scotch  during 
my  three  months'  tour  in  New  Brunswick  than  I  had 
done  during  twenty  years  of  my  life  before. 

On  my  previous  tour  upon  the  St  John  River,  as  we 
were  driving  through  a  new  settlement,  a  farmer  and  his 
staiF,  who  were  cutting  oats,  stopped  to  look  at  us.  I 
was  told  he  had  come  from  Paisley,  so  we  pulled  up  to 
talk  to  him.  "  Would  you  raither  be  staunin  there,  or 
at  the  corner  o'  the  Causeyside  V"  I  said  to  him.  This 
unexpected  allusion  to  his  native  place  went  straight  to 
his  heart.  He  stood  for  some  time  without  reply,  and 
then  said, — "  Ah,  sir,  the  Causeyside's  a  bonny  place." 
Those  who  know  the  kind  of  beauty  possessed  by  the 
Causeyside  of  Paisley  will  understana  how  much  heart 
and  home  affection  was  expressed  by  this  word 
"  bonny." 

Among  the  Arran  settlers  on  the  Restigouche,  the 
love  of  countrv  which  bound  them  to  their  island-home 
has  been  transferred  to  the  similar  land  of  "  mountain 
and  flood  "  in  which  they  are  located.  After  other  lively 
talk  Avith  a  middle-aged  thriving  farmer,  and  comments 
on  the  country,  and  comparisons  with  home, — "  An'  is 
na  that  hill  like  Goatfell?"  pointing  to  the  lofty 
Tragadegash  on  the  opposite  Canadian  shore.  He  could 
scarcely  express  his  assent ;  and  after  our  conversation 
was  ended,  and  I  and  my  friend  had  entered  the 
carriage,  he  came  warmly  forward  with  his  outstretched 
handj — "  I  maun  hae  anither  shake  o'  yer  ban',  sir ; 
ye're  a  real  Scotchman." 

Above  the  flat  lands  there  are  settlers  scattered  along 
the  river  some  ten  miles  farther  up,  as  far  as  the  mouth 
of  the  Upsalquitch,  which  I  have  already  mentioned  as 


VOL.  I. 


2c 


402 


HOME  KNOWLEDGE  OF  THE  PROVINCES. 


an  important  tributary  of  the  Eestigouche.  The  flat 
lands  at  the  mouth  of  this  tributary  are  chiefly  on  the 
Canadian  side ;  and  there  Mr  Ritchie,  the  most  extensive 
lumber-merchant  on  the  river,  has  a  farm  on  which  he 
has  this  year  raised  five  thousand  bushels  of  oats,  and 
where  green  crops  are  said  to  thrive  well.  This  gentle- 
man informed  me  that,  about  fifty  miles  higher  up,  the 
river  passes  for  ten  or  twelve  miles  through  an  undulat- 
ing tract  of  land  of  considerable  breadth  of  the  richest 
quality,  and,  as  he  thought,  one  of  the  most  promising  in 
the  province.  His  lumbering  expeditions  gave  him 
opportunities  of  seeing  and  judging  of  the  country  not 
possessed  by  other  parties ;  and  I  insert  these  and  other 
particulars  regarding  this  river  because  it  struck  me, 
from  its  natural  beauty  and  fertility,  and  from  the 
peculiarly  healthy  tone  of  character  displayed  by  its 
present  rural  population,  to  be  more  worthy  of  the 
attention  of  those  desirous  of  changing  their  homes 
than  either  we  or  the  New  Brunswickers  generally  are 
in  the  habit  of  supposing. 

As  I  have  above  remarked,  the  people  of  the  colonies 
sometimes  express  great  indignation  that  we  at  home 
know  so  little  about  their  capabilities,  or  even  their 
geography.  But  my  own  experience  in  New  Bruns- 
wick— which  province  I  explored  the  most  thoroughly 
— is,  that  the  provincials  themselves  know  their  own 
country  little  better  than  we  do  at  home.  I  may  even 
doubt  if  they  know  some  parts  of  it  so  well.  But 
supposing  our  ignorance  as  great  as  some  incline  to 
represent  it,  this  answer  to  the  complaint  might  be 
made.  The  whole  of  the  vast  territory  of  New  Bruns- 
wick contains  little  more  than  half  the  population  of  the 
cities  of  Manchester  or  Glasgow.  A  single  street  in 
either  city  contains  more  people  than  the  majority  of 
their  towns  and  cities.  As  well,  therefore,  might  the 
householder  in  an  obscure  lane  in  any  of  our  great  cities 


IIIWUIW.'IWMUIIHIB,   i'-Wr'"!3g::^?'T-^»-:^ 


GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE   PROVINCIALS. 


408 


[:he  iiat 
on  the 
sctensive 
rhich  he 
)ats,  and 
3  gentle- 
:  up,  the 
undulat- 
e  richest 
raising  in 
rave  him 
untry  not 
and  other 
:ruck  me, 
from  the 
ed  by  its 
ay  of   the 
eir  homes 
lerally  are 

le  colonies 
e  at  home 
3ven  their 
3W  Bruns- 
thoroughly 
their  own 
may  even 
ell.    But 
incline  to 
might  be 
ew  Bruns- 
i,tion  of  the 
street  in 
Lajority  of 
might  the 
•reat  cities 


complain  that  his  countrymen  did  him  wrong  in  not 
making  themselves  familiar  with  the  local  geography 
and  whereabouts  of  his  humble  residence,  as  the  colonial 
villages  grumble  that  they  have  no  place  in  the  geogra- 
phical recollections  of  the  people  and  Legislature  at 
home. 

At  the  Governor's  table  one  day  at  Fredericton,  I  sat 
next  to  a  lady,  said  to  be  a  great  heiress,  the  daughter 
of  an  Englishman  born,  who  was  complaining  loudly  ot 
the  little  that  was  known  of  their  country  at  home. 
"  Allow  me,"  I  said.  "  to  try  your  geography  ?  Is  Ire- 
land to  the  east  or  west  of  Great  Britain  ?  "  She  could 
not  answer  me ;  and  it  was  unnecessary  for  me  further 
to  defend,  on  that  day  at  least,  our  home  knowledge  in 
geography  against  the  attacks  of  the  provincials. 

In  the  afternoon  I  crossed  the  harbour  from  Atholl 
House  to  Mission  Point,  to  visit  the  priest,  Mr  Olscamps, 
and  the  Indian  settlement  he  has  charge  of  upon  the 
adjoining  land.  This  is  a  settlement  of  Micmacs,  which 
the  priest  has  very  much  the  merit  of  keeping  in  peace 
and  sobriety;  and  to  his  exertions  it  is  mainly  owing 
that  the  Indians  have  been  induced  to  settle  upon  the 
land  assigned  to  them  by  the  Government,  and  to  attend 
to  the  operations  of  farming. 

Ninety-four  families,  comprising  in  all  410  indivi- 
duals, are  here  located  upon  800  acres  of  flat  land,  lying 
between  the  mountains  and  the  river.  Five  years  ago, 
when  Mr  Olscamps  came  among  them,  they  were  nearly 
all  drunkards ;  but  he  has  succeeded  in  greatly  improv- 
ing their  habits  and  condition  since  his  arrival.  He 
speaks  their  language,  and  Ldd  previously  been  four 
years  among  the  Indians  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  territory, 
and  had  learned  the  art  of  influencing  them.  There  are 
still  many  idle  ones  among  his  flock,  and  many  who  will 
not  settle  to  regular  labour,  preferring  hunting  and 
fishing  to  steady  work  upon  the  land ;  but  the  greater 


404 


VILLAGE  OP   INDIAN   FARMERS. 


number  cultivate  their  small  farms,  and  raise  potatoes, 
oats,  beans,  and  Indian  corn,  sufficient  for  their  own 
consumption. 

I  went  into  the  houses  of  some  of  these  Indian 
farmers;  and  thougli  they  had  still  the  habits  and 
peculiarities  of  their  race,  I  found  them  industriously 
engaged  with  their  potatoes  and  Indian  corn.  The 
largest  cleared  farm  held  by  one  individual  was  30 
acres ;  another  had  25  cleared ;  a  third  20 ;  many  15, 
10,  and  so  on,  down  to  2  or  3  acres.  One  of  the  chiefs 
I  visited  had  20  sheep,  and  others  had  smaller  numbers. 
The  greatest  difficulty  of  the  cure  lay  in  his  inability  to 
prevent  the  people  of  Campbelton,  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  river,  from  selling  Jire-water  to  his  thoughtless 
flock. 

Ini  winter  they  work  in  the  woods,  cutting  firewood 
or  lumbering,  as  many  of  the  young  men  are  excellent 
axemen,  and  are  in  request  as  woodcutters.  The  older 
men  hunt  martens,  and  sometimes  make  considerable 
sums  of  money  in  this  employment.  Many  prefer 
wintering  in  the  woods  with  their  families  to  living  in 
their  houses.  At  home,  indeed,  we  have  no  idea  of  the 
superior  warmth  and  comfort  found  amid  the  shelter 
of  the  woods  during  the  winters  of  these  northern 
countries. 

Maple-trees  abound  on  the  hardwood  land  of  this 
region,  so  that  in  spring  all  go  to  the  sugar-making. 
Some  families  make  from  six  hundred  to  a  thousand  lb., 
which  they  sell  at  5d.  to  6d.  per  lb.  They  require  all 
this  money  to  buy  necessaries,  as  they  do  not  as  yet 
raise  food  enough  for  their  own  consumption;  and  in 
spring,  flour  sells  at  Campbelton  and  Dalhousie  as  high 
as  eight  or  nine  dollars  a  barrel. 

There  vere  four  ploughs  in  the  settlement,  all  of 
good  construction.  On  one  of  them  I  saw  irons  with 
the  name   of  "  Wilkie,  Uddingstone,  near  Glasgow," 


W.iwwn  jiiiiJ-i'-'BM.^yj'Wg?'.' 


••m 


lotatoes, 
eir  own 

Indian 
bits  and 
striously 
•n.     The 

was  30 
nany  15, 
:he  chiefs 
numbers, 
lability  to 
posite  side 
lioughtless 


SUGAR-LOAF  MOUNTAIN. 


40fr 


r  firewood 

e  excellent 

The  older 

msiderable 

iny   prefer 

living  in 
[idea  of  the 
the  shelter 

northern 

Ind  of  this 
lar-making. 
Jousand  lb., 
require  all 
not  as  yet 
m;  and  in 
isie  as  high 

^ent,  all  of 
irons  with 
Glasgowj" 


upon  tliem.  I  sympathised  with  the  wishes  expressed 
by  the  priest  to  be  able  to  maintain  a  permanent  school 
among  them.  Difficulties  stand  in  the  way  of  a  Govern- 
ment grant,  inasmuch  as,  by  the  Canadian  regulations, 
aid  is  given  only  to  schools  which  have  a  certain 
minimum  number  of  pupils.  It  is  in  forming  the  school, 
and  breaking  in  the  children  to  attend  at  all,  that  the 
main  difficulty  lies.  When  formed,  it  might  possibly 
be  made  self-supporting.  So  far  as  I  have  learned, 
all  the  provincial  Governments  have  been  anxious  to 
minister,  as  far  as  their  means  and  knowledge  go,  to 
the  comfort  and  improvement  of  these  v.anishing  races 
of  people;  though  individual  feeling  and  party  bias 
in  the  provinces,  as  at  home,  occasionally  obstruct  for 
a  time  the  adoption  of  the  most  judicious  and  beneficent 
proposals. 

Tuesday^  Oct.  9. — After  breakfast  this  morning  we 
climbed  the  sugar-loaf  mountain — a  warm,  difficult,  and 
steep  ascent  over  rocks,  stones,  .and  windfalls.  It  is 
upwards  of  eight  hundred  feet  in  height,  though  not  high 
enough,  as  I  had  expected,  to  give  us  a  view  over  the 
uplands  towards  the  south,  though  these  are  not  so  high 
as  those  on  the  Canadian  side.  The  prospect  from  the 
summit  was  extensive  and  beautiful.  Up  the  river,  the 
eye  penetrated  as  far  as  the  gorge  through  which  the 
Metapediac  enters  the  Restigouche  from  the  north,  and 
down — beyond  Campbelton  and  Dalhousie  on  the  one 
side,  and  the  Tragadegash  Mountain  on  the  other — far 
along  the  Bay  de  Chaleur,  almost  to  its  mouth.  North 
and  south,  hardwood  ridges,  with  intervening  valleys, 
extended  as  far  as  our  elevation  permitted  us  to  see. 
It  was  clear  that,  for  many  miles  on  either  side  of  the 
river,  the  land  was  naturally  favourable  to  agricultural 
settlements,  and  partook  in  a  great  degree  of  the  good 
qualities  of  the  soils  I  had  passed  over  on  my  way  from 
the  Canadian  forest  to  the  ferry  on  the  Restigouche. 


406 


GEOLOaiCAL  STRUCTURE  AND   FERTILITY. 


It  is  interesting  to  observe  how  geological  structure 
is  connected  with  and  explains  all  this.  Over  the  lime- 
Btonc  formation,  which  is  observed  about  the  upper 
Metapediac  Lake,  lies  a  thick  deposit  of  sandstone,  which 
forms  the  surface'  of  the  pine-clad  country  I  passed 
through  for  a  considerable  distance  on  my  way  towards 
the  south.  To  this  succeed  a  series  of  beds  of  a  more 
mixed,  sh.aly,  calcareous,  and  sandy  nature,  which  form 
the  improved  hardwood  lands  that  border  the  shores  of 
the  llcstigouehe  liiver,  harbour,  and  bay,  and  of  the 
broader  Bay  do  Chaleur.  They  comprehend  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Devonian  and  mountain  limestone 
systems,  though,  in  a  new  country  like  this,  so  little 
explored,  and,  from  its  covering  of  forest,  so  difficult  to 
explore,  the  limits  or  details  of  these  two  formations,  or 
of  their  subdivisions,  have  not  as  yet  been  made  out. 
But  it  is  to  the  presence  of  these  formations  that  the 
good  land  of  this  region  is  to  be  ascribed,  and  by  their 
extent,  in  a  great  measure,  that  it  is  limited.  Climate, 
therefore,  unless  it  be  extreme,  is  by  no  means  the  most 
influential  element  in  determining  the  agricultural  capa- 
bilities of  a  country.  Its  geological  character  has  still 
more  to  do  with  its  economical  prospects,  and  is  deserving 
of  a  study  not  less  careful  and  minute,  both  by  natives 
and  foreigners,  than  is  usually  given  to  climatic  con- 
ditions. 

The  part  of  Lower  Canada  to  which  I  have  so  often 
alluded  as  forming  the  northern  shores  of  the  Restigouche 
and  of  the  Bay  de  Chaleur,  constitutes  what  is  called  the 
county  of  Bonaventure.  In  this  county,  especially  along 
the  shore  towards  the  east,  there  is  much  good  land, 
many  villages  or  towns,  intelligent  settlers,  and  extensive 
settlements.  From  all  I  saw  and  learned,  I  believe  it  to 
be  one  of  the  most  favourable  parts  of  Lower  Canada  for 
the  homes  of  British  settlers.  It  is  far  from  the  seat  of 
Government,  and  on  that  account  more  likely  to  suffer 


m  '  w  •■■*» . 


'•'A 


AGRICULTURAL  SOCIETIES. 


407 


itructuro 

[ho  limc- 

le  upper 

ic,  which 

I  passed 

r  towards 

f  a  more 

lich  form 
shores  of 

nd  of  the 

:hc  repre- 

limestone 

I,  so  little 

lifficult  to 

nations,  or 

made  out. 

18  that  the 

id  by  their 
Climate, 

13  the  most 
ural  capa- 
ir  has  still 
deserving 
Iby  natives 
matic  con- 

\e  so  often 
Lestigouche 
called  the 
jially  along 
rood  land, 
extensive 
lelieve  it  to 
>nada  for 
Ihe  seat  of 
to  suflfer 


neglect ;  hut  it  is  somewhat  nearer  to  us,  and  more 
accessible  from  our  British  ports,  chiefly  through  vessels 
which  bring  the  yearly  supplies  of  timber  to  the  British 
islands. 

Agricultural  improvement  is  not  unthought  of  even 
here.  I  crossed  over  this  afternoon  to  the  north  side  of 
the  harbour,  to  be  present  at  an  agricultural  show  for 
the  western  part  of  the  county.  There  were  altogether 
130  articles  exhibited — cattle,  some  Durhams,  but  chiefly 
Ayrshires ;  sheep,  and  horses,  which  were  very  creditable 
to  so  new  a  country.  The  potatoes,  turnips,  and  cab- 
bages, &c.,  also  were  all  excellent.  It  is  complained,  as 
in  some  parts  of  the  States,  that  the  market  for  mutton 
does  not  increase  so  fast  as  the  production  of  sheep. 
The  societies,  therefore,  are  beginning  to  agitate  the 
propriety  of  encouraging  the  introduction  and  rearing  of 
merinos,  for  the  sake  of  the  wool,  or,  in  the  meantime, 
as  more  immediately  attainable,  of  a  cross  between  the 
Leicester  and  the  South  Down. 

If  not  always  a  sure  indication  of  progress,  this  exis- 
tence of  agricultural  societies  in  all  these  remote  places 
is  a  sign  that,  in  the  minds  of  a  certain  number  of  per- 
sons, there  exists  a  desire  to  progress.  There  are  *two 
of  these  societies  in  this  remote  Canadian  county  of 
Bonaventure,  and  others  in  the  county  of  Gaspd.  The 
Canadian  Legislature  add  £3  to  every  £1  which  is 
subscribed  by  the  members  of  a  society,  provided  that 
the  whole  sum  given  to  the  county  from  the  pro- 
vincial purse  do  not  exceed  £160  a-year.  Thus,  £25 
raised  on  the  spot  secure  £100  to  give  away  in  prizes. 
Each  great  district,  also — of  which  there  are  four  in 
Lower  Canada — receives  in  succession  the  large  grant  of 
£500,  which  is  given  in  prizes  at  the  great  quadrennial 
shows  held  in  succession  in  these  several  districts.  The 
district  of  Montreal  has  the  advantage  of  this  grant  dur- 
ing the  present  year. 


408 


PROSPEROUS  LUMBER-TRADE. 


Tiie  soil  at  the  foot  of  the  hills  in  this  nciglibourhood 
is  much  infested  with  the  Galeopst's  telrahit — the  day- 
nottle,  as  it  is  called  here.  And  the  curious  thing  about 
it  is,  that  the  seeds  of  this  weed  are  often  turned  up  in 
hoards  or  nests,  of  handfuls  at  a  time,  especially  upon 
new  land.  Some  animal  of  course  has  collected  them, 
and  stored  them  away  for  winter  food. 

Crossing  again  to  the  New  Brunswick  side,  I  started 
for  Dalhousie,  sixteen  miles  down  the  river,  and  at  the 
mouth  of  the  harbour.  Both  Campbelton  and  Dalhousie 
are  new  towns.  Twenty  years  ago  there  were  only 
three  houses  in  Dalhousie,  and  only  one  old  house  where 
Campbelton  now  stands.  Both  are  already  considerable 
places,  and  contain  together  upwards  of  2000  of  a  fixed, 
besides  the  less  stationary  lumbering  population. 
•  The  lumber-trade,  which  in  so  many  other  parts  of 
New  Brunswick  has  failed,  and  given  rise  to  much  dis- 
content, was  described  to  me  as  being  on  the  Restigouche 
as  prosperous  as  ever.  But  the  mode  of  conducting  it 
has  been  changed.  Instead  of  making  advances,  as 
formerly,  to  persons  who  led  out  parties  into  the  woods, 
and  delivered  the  timber  in  spring  to  the  merchant  at 
a  price,  the  merchant  now  engages  his  own  gangs  of 
cutters,  places  his  foremen  over  them,  provides  their 
supplies,  and  the  logs  when  they  arrive  are  his  own. 
Measures  are  taken  also  to  diminish  or  do  away  alto- 
gether with  the  enormous  commissions  and  agents' 
charges,  which,  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  have 
hitherto  stood  so  much  in  the  way  of  a  steady  and  fairly 
profitable  transaction  of  business  on  the  part  of  the 
manufacturer,  or  of  the  merchant  exporter. 

The  Bay  de  Chaleur,  and  Restigouche  harbour  and 
bay,  are  somewhat  famous  in  the  history  of  this  colony. 
The  French  first  colonised  this  river,  and  established 
forts  and  settlements  upon  it.  British  fleets  and  troops 
have  fought  in  it,  and  the  remains  of  French  defences 


PRICE  OF  FLOUR. 


409 


mrhood 
10  day- 
r  about 
d  up  in 
lly  upon 
;d  tbem, 

L  started 
d  at  the 
)alhou8ie 
ere  only 
ise  where 
isiderable 
f  a  fixed, 

n. 

r  parts  of 
much  dis- 
estigouche 
ducting  it 
ranees,  as 
^hc  woods, 
irehant  at 
gangs  of 
rides  their 
his  own. 
iway  alto- 
id  agents' 
Ltic,  have 
and  fairly 
irt  of  the 

rbour  and 
^is  colony, 
jstablished 
|ind  troops 
defences 


are  still  to  be  seen  on  many  of  the  points  most  suitable 
for  defence.  Mr  Ferguson  preserves  around  Atholl 
House  several  large  guns,  which  had  been  buried  and 
left  behind  on  the  site  of  an  old  battery  upon  the  Cana- 
dian shore,  a  few  miles  above  his  residence. 

Oct.  11. — Immediately  behind  Dalhousie  rises  Challc- 
fours  Hill,  from  which  an  extensive  view  is  obtained, 
not  only  of  the  river-scenery  already  described,  but  of 
the  newly-opened  country  up  the  Eel  River,  a  stream 
which  flows  into  the  bay  a  few  miles  below  Dalhousie. 
Up  this  river  there  are  many  new  settlers,  all  Scotch  at 
the  settlement  of  Dundee,  and  a  mixture  of  Scotch  and 
Irish  at  that  of  Colebrook.  These  have  all  been  located 
within  these  five  or  six  years,  and  are  all  prospering. 
Every  kind  of  grain  ripens.  Even  Indian  corn — 
the  short  eight-rowed  yellow  variety — is  a  sure  crop. 
Only  nine  years  ago,  when  the  local  agricultural  society 
was  established,  it  was  believed  that  wheat  could  not  be 
grown ;  now  most  farmers  grow  not  only  enough  for 
their  own  consumption,  but  have  some  for  sale.  The 
variety  sown  is  a  hardy  red  chaffed  spring  wheat,  with 
a  long  red  beard,  known  as  the  Bed  Russian.  This 
variety  has  hitherto  escaped  the  midge,  and  is  less  subject 
to  be  shaken  when  over-ripe. 

Still  the  lumberers,  and  the  Indians,  and  the  towns- 
people, and  the  new  settlers  require  imported  flour ;  and 
it  shows  how  imperfect  the  means  of  transport  still  are 
about  the  mouth  of  the  St  Lawrence,  or  how  scarce 
capital  or  mercantile  competition,  that  when  flour  sells 
at  Quebec  at  20s.  a  barrel,  it  brings  here  358.,  and  that 
on  the  closing  of  the  river  it  rises  here  at  once  to  SOs.  % 
barrel.  At  this  time  of  my  visit,  though  still  early  in 
October,  it  is  40s.  a  barrel  for  cash  at  Dalhousie.  One 
of  the  benefits  of  the  harder  times  on  the  North  Ame- 
rican rivers  will  be,  to  wean  the  lumberers  from  their 
attachment  to  the  finest  and  fairest  flour.     They  have 


410 


FOSSILTFEROUS  LIMESTONE. 


grown  up  under  the  idea  that  the  darker  flour  produced 
from  their  home-grown  red  wheats  wcs  inferior  in  nutri- 
tive quality,  and  not  good  enough  for  their  subsistence. 
The  sooner  all  parties  are  disabused  of  this  erroneous 
impression  the  better — the  less  of  imported  flour  will  be 
required  in  Nova  Scotia,  New  Brunswick,  and  Lower 
Canada — the  more  self-sustaining  they  will  become — 
and  the  more  prosperous  the  agricultural  interest  of 
the  colonies. 

Oats  imported  from  Prince  Edward's  Island  are  here 
selling  at  Is.  8d.  currency  per  bushel,  the  freight  being 
usually  4d.  a  bushel  from  that  island,  and  3d.  from 
Quebec.  This  grain  is  extensively  imported  from  Prince 
Edward's  Island  to  New  Brunswick.  Labour  is  said  to 
be  cheaper  there — £15  to  £18,  with  food,  being  the 
wageS)  of  men,  who,  on  the  Restigouche,  would  ask  £25 
to  £35  currency.  But  labour  is  always  higher  where 
lumbering  is  carried  on  to  any  extent. 

The  old  red  sandstones  are  seen  in  a  nearly  horizontal 
position  on  many  parts  of  this  coast.  Along  the  shore, 
about  a  mile  below  Dalhousie,  an  interesting  cliff  section 
is  exhibited  of  highly  inclined  rocks,  consisting  of  lime- 
stones and  calcareous  shales,  full  of  fossils,  intermingled 
with  harder,  somewhat  metamorphic  beds — altered  pos- 
sibly by  the  neighbourhood  of  trap-rocks,  which  also 
abound  along  the  south  shore  of  the  bay.  Among  the 
fossils  were  abundant  large  madrepores,  cyathophylla, 
and  productas,  with  tubipores,  branched  corals,  delthyris, 
&c. ;  but  whether  the  beds  were  upper  silurlan  or  moun- 
tain limestone,  as  they  are  coloured  by  Lyell — I  suppose 
from  Logan's  survey — I  had  not  leisure  to  collect  fossils 
enough  satisfactorily  to  determine.  Any  scientific 
geologist  who  may  hereafter  visit  the  Bay  de  Chaleur 
will  find  this  an  interesting  point  to  examine. 

This  morning  being  fine,  Mr  Campbell  of  Dalhousie 
was  kind  enough  to  drive  me  up  the  Eel  River  as  far 


LUMBERERS  BECOME  FARMERS. 


411 


reduced 
a  nutri- 
istence. 
roneous 
will  be 
[  Lower 
3Come — 
erest  of 

are  here 
ht  being 
3d.  from 
tn  Prince 
is  said  to 
)eing  the 
ask  £25 
^er  where 

horizontal 
he  shore, 
iif  section 
J  of  lime- 
jrmingled 
ered  pos- 
hich  also 
mong  the 
:bophylla, 
jdelthyris, 
or  moun- 
ll  suppose 
lect  fossils 
scientific 
Chaleur 

)alhousie 
|er  as  far 


as  the  newest  settlements  lately  planted  there.  We 
penetrated  to  the  very  farthest  log-huts  at  the  extremity 
of  the  last  new  road  driven  into  the  forest.  The  settlers 
are  not  altogether  without  society ;  and  when  of  the 
same  country  and  religion,  as  they  suffer  alike,  so  they 
sympathise  deeply  with  each  other,  and  are  ever  ready 
to  give  a  hearty  and  willing  assistance  to  a  distressed 
neighbour.  Though  not  so  close  together  as  in  the 
French  settlements,  where  the  long  narrow  farm  system 
prevails,  yet  80  or  100,  or  even  200  acre  lots,  do  not 
separate  people  very  widely,  and  the  habit  of  erecting 
two  log  huts  opposite  each  other  on  farms  separated  only 
by  the  road,  gives  one  near  neighbour  at  least  in  a  dis- 
trict which  is  rapidly  filling  up.  To  the  enjoyment  of  a 
fair  measure  f '  happiness,  only  a  few  intimate  friends  are 
necessary ;  and  we  who  live  among  a  thickly  crowded 
population  know  little  how  strongly,  in  a  wilderness 
country,  the  hearts  of  neighbours  become  knit  together 
where  those  external  influences  of  more  civilised  life 
are  excluded  by  which  differences  and  discontent  are 
most  frequently  awakened. 

The  idea  I  have  formerly  alluded  to  as  being  enter- 
tained in  New  Brunswick,  that  lumbering — spending  the 
winter  in  the  woods  cutting  down  trees  with  the  axe, 
and  the  spring  in  guiding  the  logs  and  rafts  down  the 
swollen  streams — is  the  more  dignified  occupation,  and 
that  the  lumberer  degrades  himself  when  he  becomes  a 
farmer — such  an  idea  calls  up  a  smile  on  our  faces  at 
home.  Such,  however,  was  everywhere,  till  recently, 
the  notion  entertained  by  the  active  enterprising  young 
men  on  the  North  American  rivers.  But  bad  times,  and 
perhaps  other  influences,  are  correcting  these  notions, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  they  are  improving  their  morals. 
They  begin  now  to  consume  tea  instead  of  ardent  spirits. 
They  thus  save  money ;  and  seeing  that  the  farmers — 
though  they  cannot  show  so  much  ready  money  as  they 


412      INFLUENCE  OF  THE  MERCANTILE  INTEREST. 

are  themselves  sometimes  master  of — are,  on  the  whole, 
more  independent,  and  less  liable  to  great  vicissitudes 
than  themselves,  they  now  look  to  fanning  as  a  pur- 
suit to  settle  down  in,  are  buying  land,  spending  their 
spring  leisure  in  clearing  it,  and,  when  they  have  pre- 
pared it  for  their  families,  in  placing  them  permanently 
upon   it.     Of  this  class  of  settlers  are  many  of  those 
whose  farms  I  saw  on  my  excursion  up  the  Eel  River 
to-day,  and  it  is  in  this  way  that  what  has  been  called 
the  failure  of  the  lumber-trade — which,  at  the  shipping 
ports,  has  made  the  merchants  exclaim  loudly  against 
the  change  of  the  timber-duties  at  home,  and  has  even 
put  the  cry  of  Annexation  into  the  mouths  of  many — is 
really  leading  to  the  most  permanently  beneficial  results 
for  the  colonies  themselves.     The  steady  settled  farmer 
is  wprth,  to  the  future  welfare  and  prosperity  of  the 
colony,  a  dozen  unsettled  lumberers,  who  this  season 
may  cut  timber  on  the  provincial  rivers  for  the  merchants 
of  St  John  or  Quebec ;  the  next  may  be  off  to  the  Aroos- 
took or  the  Penobscot,  in  the  service  of  the  merchants  of 
Bangor  or  Portland ;  and  the  third  may  be  found  in 
Georgia,  toiling  among  the  pine-barrens  for  the  lumber- 
merchants  of  Boston  ;  and  who,  if  they  remained  in  the 
colony,  would  continue  an  unsteady  and  unthrifty  race. 
It  is  not  denied  that  the  mercantile  interest  has  hitherto 
exercised,  in  some  of  the  North  American  colonies,  more 
than  a  due  share  in  the  management  of  affairs,  and  that 
past  legislation  has  been  biassed  considerably  by  this 
dominant  influence.     It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  same 
influence    has  also   operated,  through    the    press    and 
the  hustings,  in  creating,  or  endeavouring  to  create,  an 
impression  in  the  provincial  mind  as  to  the  feelings  of 
people  at  home,   and  as  to  the  purpose  and  ultimate 
tendency  of  home  legislation,  which  will  not,  I  think, 
be  justified  by  further  knowledge  and  experience. 

To  show  the  natural  capability  of  the  new  land  these 


3T. 


PfiODUCE  OP  POTATOES. 


413 


whole, 
tudes 


issi 


8  a  pur- 
ling their 
lave  pre- 
manently 
of  those 
Eel  Biver 
jen  called 
i  shipping 
ly  against 
has  even 
many — is 
;ial  results 
led  farmer 
rity  of  the 
his  season 
5  merchants 
I  the  Aroos- 
erchants  of 
e  found  in 
he  lumher- 
ned  in  the 
rifty  race, 
as  hitherto 
jnies,  more 
Is,  and  that 
)ly  by  this 
it  the  same 
press    and 
create,  an 
I  feelings  of 
Vd  ultimate 
pt,  I  think, 
knee, 
land  these 


men  settle  upon,  and  how,  at  this  time  of  potato-failure, 
they  have  husbanded  their  seed-potatoes,  1  may  mention 
the  returns  obtained  this  year  by  several  of  these  settlers 
on  the  forks  of  the  Eel  lliver,  as  I  took  them  down  from 
their  own  mouths.  One  of  them  planted  4  barrels,  cut 
into  small  sets,  and  dug  up  142  barrels ;  another  planted 
ii  barrels  and  housed  60,  besides  eating  of  the  crop 
all  summer ;  a  third  planted  3^,  and  took  up  60,  besides 
consuming,  since  the  1st  of  August,  what  were  required 
by  a  family  of  six  children  three  times  a-day.  These 
large  crops  are  given  by  land  on  which  the  wood  is  cut 
in  the  fall,  the  trees  burned  in  spring,  the  ashes  spread, 
and  the  seed  put  in.  The  comparative  greatness  of  the 
returns  may  be  judged  of  by  the  fact  that,  in  the  highly 
farmed  and  highly  'uanMred  land  around  Edinburgh,  4 
bolls,  or  16  cwt.,  '-ys  u  ually  planted;  and  6  to  8  tons 
(8  to  10  fold)  are  r  ^  •  3d  large  crops  to  raise  on  tbc 
West  coast.  In  Ireland  10  to  12  tons  are  frequent, 
but  even  this  return  is  small  compared  to  that  of  these 
necessity-compelled,  thrifty  Mew  Brunswickers. 

I  went  into  the  furthest  log-hut  upon  the  last  clearing. 
It  was  warm  and  comfortable ;  and  a  good  stove  in  it 
not  only  kept  the  inmates  warm,  but  gave  them  the 
means  of  cooking.  These  cooking  stoves  are  found  very 
con;'enient  in  North  America.  Numerous  varieties  of 
them  are  exhibited  at  the  larger  agricultural  shows,  and 
some  of  them  do  their  work  with  a  great  economy  of 
fuel — an  article  which  lavish  expenditure  in  past  years 
is  beginning  to  make  scarce  and  dear  in  many  of  the 
more  densely-settled  districts. 

I  found  the  wife  and  five  clean  healthy  children  in  the 
hut.  She  was  very  content,  and  would  not  go  home  if 
she  had  an  opportunity.  It  was  foolishness  whicii 
brought  them  away  ;  and  they  are  not  so  well  off  yet  as 
when  at  home,  but  hoped  in  a  short  time  to  be  better  off, 
as  I  have  no  doubt  industrv  would  soon  make  them. 


414 


DISOBEDIENCE  OF  CHILDREN. 


Potatoes,  oats,  and  turnips  were  the  crops  growing  on 
,        their  first  year's  clearing — all  luxuriant  and  healthy. 

An  anecdote  told  me  by  a  friend  at  Dalhousie 
illustrates  very  graphically  one  of  the  most  important  of 
the  social  and  domestic  differences  by  which  our  own 
homes,  and  those  of  most  of  our  colonies,  are  distinguished 
from  those  of  the  United  States.  "  A  settler  of  many 
years  at  Dalhousie,  a  shoemaker  by  trade,  had  saved 
£500  in  money,  and  had  five  or  six  boys  growing  up, 
when  he  took  it  in  his  head  to  go  off  to  Wisconsin.  Six 
months  after  his  departure,  a  small  vessel  from  Quebec 
entered  the  harbour  of  Dalhousie,  and,  Avhen  evening 
came  on,  a  depressed-looking  man  in  shabby  clothing 
landed  from  the  vessel,  and  walked  up  to  my  house. 
When  he  came  in,  I  was  surprised  to  recognise  my  old 
neighbour  the  shoemaker.  '  You  are  surprised,'  he  said ; 
*  but  though  I  was  a  fool  to  go  away,  I  have  had  courage 
enough  to  come  back.  When  I  had  got  to  Wisconsin, 
i?y  boys  —  who  had  been  good  boys  here  —  began  to 
neglect  their  work,  and  disregard  me.  I  durst  not 
correct  them,  sir,  or  I  should  have  been  mobbed.  They 
soon  learned  this,  and  my  authority  was  gone.  My  heart 
was  sore,  my  money  was  melting  away,  my  children 
were  a  sorrow  instead  of  a  comfort  to  me,  and  talked 
of  starting  for  themselves.  I  sold  off  and  came  down  to 
Canada.  "  Now,  my  boys,"  says  I,  "  I  have  got  you 
under  the  British  flag  again,  and  we'll  have  no  more 
rebellion."  So  I  kept  my  boys  in  hand,  but  we  didn't 
get  on  as  we  used  to  do ;  and,  at  last,  I  determined  to 
come  back  to  Dalhousie.  What's  the  world  to  me,  sir, 
if  my  boys  are  to  be  a  vexation  to  me  ?  But  I  haven't 
a  penny  of  money ;  and  our  clothing  is  so  scanty  that  I 
am  ashamed  to  bring  them  all  ashore  in  daylight.'  * 

*  How  differeut  this  picture  of  the  domestic  relations,  in  these  new 
States,  from  the  representations  which  have  come  down  to  us  regarding 
the  ancient  republics  of  Greece  and  Rome  !  How  different,  for  example, 


ANCIENT  REPUBLICS  AND  MODERN. 


415 


owing  on 
lalthy. 
Dalhousle 
portant  of 
L  our  own 
tingulshed 
r  of  many 
bad  saved 
owing  up, 
asin.     Six 
m  Quebec 
n  evening 
Y  clothing 
my  house. 
ise  my  old 
[,'  he  said ; 
id  courage 
Wisconsin, 
r-  began  to 
durst  not 
ed.    They 
My  heart 
children 
md  talked 
le  down  to 
e  got  you 
\  no  more 
we  didn't 
rrained  to 
to  me,  sir, 
;  I  haven't 
mty  that  I 
:ht.'* 


"  So  I  gave  him,"  added  my  informant,  "  the  use  of 
a  house  of  mine  that  happened  to  be  empty ;  his  wife  and 
boys  were  brought  ashore  the  same  night,  and  they  are 
again  an  industrious,  if  not  so  united  a  family  as  before." 

from  that  firio  old  picture  presented  us  by  Cicero  (2)e  Senectute)  of 
Appius  Claudius,  who,  after  being  five  years  censor,  having  brought 
water  into  the  city  of  Rome,  and  having  built  the  famous  Appian  Way, 
had  at  last  become  blind,  and  retired  into  the  bosom  of  his  family.  He 
thus  makes  Cato  speak  of  the  old  man — "Quatuor  robustos  filios,  quinque 
filias,  tantam  domum,  tantas  clieutelas,  Appius  regebat  et  senex  et 
coQCus.  Intentum  animum  tamquam  arcum  habebat,  nee  languescens 
Buccumbebat  senectuti.  Tonebat  non  modo  auctoritatem  Bed  etiam 
imperium  in  suos,  metuebant  servi,  verebautur  liberi,  casum  omnes 
habebant ;  vif/cbat  in  illo  domo  patnus  moa  et  disciplina."  Love,  fear, 
end  reverence  were  entei"tained  towards  the  ancient  father  in  that  old 
republic — what  better  things  can  have  taken  their  place  in  the  new  f 


END  OF  VOL.  I. 


in  these  new 
us  regarding 
for  example, 


TRIXTBD   BY   WILMAM    li^ACKWOOD  AN1>   SONS,   KlMNfiURUH. 


